April 20, 2016

Transitions: Underestimation Station

Welcome aboard the underestimation station. Better known as what has been the last 4 weeks of our lives.

There were a lot of things I didn't expect and I have to share. The whole point of this blog is to help anyone in our similar situation and well to keep everyone updated on our goings on. 

1. Niko and Reno were amazing. They are my troopers. They have adjusted wonderfully and probably better than all of us. They went to school on the first day and it's been smiles ever since with a few extremely minor bumps. Don't get me wrong: Reno almost had to be physically removed from the car but he did it and got past the anxiety on his own and without tears. Proud mama right here. Niko got out of the car on the first day and said "Let's get this over with." My kind of guy.

Niko had a teacher tell him he's doing so well in school that she might nominate him to be a safety patrol! Reno also told us Niko is so popular already as kids are always coming up to him and asking, "Are you Niko's brother?" Too funny.

Reno has lots of friends. Everytime he tells a story he starts it with, "My friend" so and so did this or that. He's thrown in "he's like my best friend" when referring to a couple of the kids, too.



2. I was a hot mess. My emotions were everywhere. They still are. The feelings of semi-failure when moving back in with my mom after 15 years was strange. I realize I expect way too much of myself. I want to get things done and yesterday. As in I wanted to know our future plans yesterday. Everyone asks: "Do you know where you are going/what you are doing yet?" Ummm no. Wish I did. I've come to the conclusion that it's ok that we don't know. It's been one month. Our focus has been totally on our children and their adjustment and comfort here. We are ready now at this point to focus more on what's next.

3. Cayenne has been a mess. She takes after her mama. Last week felt like our first normal week. She has started to let go a bit and she is feeling better. She has been a suction cup on my hip for the last 3 1/2 weeks. This is where I underestimated the most. I thought if Cayenne was with us she would be fine. I was wrong. She had been cranky and wanting only me to hold her every second of every day. If I put her down the crying/screaming would ensue.

It didn't help that she got incredibly sick and had a 102+ fever for 5 days. She was coughing a ton, throat hurt, in/out of sleep, barely ate, etc. It was awful. The sickness had her out of commission for at least a 8 days. In the end we visited 2 urgent cares and the emergency room. It. Was. Awful. They did every test under the sun (UTI, flu, strep, pneumonia and I'm sure I am forgetting a couple) and they all came back negative. They came back with a diagnosis of upper respiratory infection AKA a fancy name for a cold. Thank goodness it wasn't anything serious but at the same time I just wanted to be able to treat whatever it was and I wanted her to be better. I've never had a kid be so little and have a fever for so long. It was scary. She just wasn't herself. The fever was causing her to act loopy and delirious. She got better the day after the ER visit. PHEW.

She was such a trooper when they put the iv in. I was traumatized.

Sicky baby (always cute)
Cayenne has just started to let go of me and let other's in. Family members have held her and she's played with them. I'm not holding her 100% of the time either. She is exploring and we are developing a routine. We found a weekly story time, started soccer lessons (cutest thing ever) and swim lessons. We bike ride together every day to get the boys. We sing songs along the way and talk about our surroundings. She loves water, water guns and the pool and going in with her big bruddas (as she calls them). She still asks about going "Home" and it breaks my heart.


The end of their first full week of school-- a day at the BEACH!
 
Her brothers had nothing to do with this. She runs around all the time saying Pew Pew.
Soccer!
4. That brings me to the hubs. He is busy working Monday-Friday proving to the powers that be that the full time remote thing is doable. He is in hiding in my mom's old office/the boys new room/Edson's new office for most of the day. Can you say multipurpose room?! He gets to take an early morning bike ride with us sometimes which is nice. He is used to getting out every day and grabbing lunch so this is a big adjustment. He likes to get out of the house at the end of the day.

We are both adjusting to the lack of privacy. The baby is in "our room", the boys are in their room and my mom is typically downstairs in the living room after they go to bed. There aren't many options for a place where we can go to talk. We have a lot to talk about these days. You know the whole what does our future hold stuff. We have gone out twice for a couple hours. We are getting used to taking advantage of the babysitters we have around. We need to. Slowly but surely.

5. Our dog: Cola. He's been a handful. He's been peeing everywhere when we leave so we've had to put him in his crate where he cries and whines the entire time. He's tried to nip at my mom when she's told him to get off furniture (we've never let him on the furniture at our house). He also has recently developed some type of skin issue that will inevitably require a vet visit in the next week. We've recommenced training and are working on it.

6. One can't forget my mom. We moved our family to her house and took over. Our stuff is everywhere and we've turned her life upside down. She has lived alone since I moved out of the house. Her life is scheduled and she is always busy. She has been very flexible with all of it. Inevitably, there have been a few discussions on things like laundry and dishes. She tells me when something bothers her and I try hard not to be annoyed. We are the mother-daughter team that agreed she could only stay at our house in Northern VA for a max of 2 weeks before we got on each other's nerves. HA! That's ironic. It's week 4 and we are both still alive.

All this being said, we are transitioning. Some of us better than others. I really didn't expect the adjustment to go as well as it has for the boys and I am sooooo overjoyed that it went that way. Now our big concern is uprooting them again. Cayenne has thrown me for a loop but it seems all is moving in a positive direction.

Onward and upward!


April 18, 2016

Unpacking: A Glimpse

Try moving your family of 5 and a dog back into your parents house. It's not easy. Unpacking was challenging to say the least. There is not room for much. My mom is an artist. There are paintings everywhere. She also dabbled in glass work so there are a ton of glass pieces, too. Oh and did I mention that her dining chairs are WHITE? White fabric?! Oy vey. What was I thinking probably crossed my mind a few hundred times. No joke. The last time I was here I had a 6 month old who couldn't walk and get into anything. Chime the "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. You know you want to sing it.

I digress.  I don't like living amongst boxes so the unpacking was a constant nagging in the back of my mind until every box was gone. The challenging part came when I had to go through my old room first. Basically exactly what I did in our house in VA needed to be done in my old room in FL. I came up with a room full of donate items. Once that was done I could figure out where to put all the shite we brought. It was like fitting a square peg into a round hole. Somehow we did it. I packed everything minus a few boxes that the hubs packed. That being said, he did do all the major heavy lifting and he was the Tetris mastermind behind organizing the uhaul and our storage container. Thanks goodness it's done and over. At least until the next move.


The day we got here. We had 2 days to unpack the uhaul and 2 houses to unload on.


My mom's office/Edson's new office/the boys room
STUFF IS EVERYWHERE

Note to self: Give yourself more time to unpack and get settled. You are not wonder woman. You cannot physically or mentally unpack, get settled and figure out your life in a 2 week period. Not possible.