Settling in

There is so much to say...but this is not that post.  This is just a howdy do, we-haven't-fallen-off-the-planet post.  We're settling in nicely and hosted our first little family dinner here lastnight.  The ribs were a little tough, the boys didn't like the watermelon salad (the girls did tho!), Nestor thought the mac&cheese was gritty (from the parmesan) and the monkey bread took an extra 25 minutes because the oven got turned off...but that's ok!  We had a wonderful meal and everyone -- friends and family have been as generous and helpful as anyone could be. 

So far we're not missing NYC.  The friends and family there...YES! But the lifestyle and teeny tiny apartment...NO!  We are truly living the california lifestyle at it's finest.  We LOVE our house and we have a wonderful nurse, Patricia, who is remarkable with Amelia.  She has worked with lots of kids like Amelia, accompanying them to PT and OT -- therefore, she implements a lot of the techniques she's learned with Amelia each day.  It's wonderful.  They have "school time" where she works on OT and colors/numbers etc. techniques.  We are so lucky to have found her!

I've been working with Amelia with colors too and she's really getting better at sorting her colored boxes. I'm constantly amazed by her.  Today, I showed her pictures of her toys and asked her what she wanted to play with.  I was pretty sure she wanted her sorting boxes, but gave her 4 photos to choose from off the velcro board.  She chose her shape sorter...I was a bit surprised.  When I went into the other room to get the toy, I came back to find that she had put the picture of her shape sorter back onto the velcro board and had taken off the photo of her sorting boxes!!!! I was SHOCKED!!!!  She is so smart and it is so exciting to see her doing things to help herself communicate!!!!

Here are some quick pics I just took to give you a sense of this place.   I'll get more inside the house as we get the pictures up and order a dining room table!!!! 

Amelia enjoying her lunch!

The deck

 The backyard and back of the Guest House

  This is what I see when I wake up each morning

The front patio with jacuzzi