The last days of November

How will  it be December tomorrow ?

 I rush to chronicle what I can of the past 2 weeks ( Thanks to the pictures on my phone - seriously what did we do before phones on our cameras)

It has been rather a good couple of weeks as right in the middle of it was a 4 day weekend

 Thanksgiving Weekend

This is to be our greet weekend of settling in .

I have 4 days off and have decided to do no office work these 4 days

Settling his playroom is always so bittersweet for me

I am made so aware of how fast the time is passing - we declutter a little bit but I cannot throw away some very babyish books as they have such memories attached to them

For instance this book is when we discovered he was hyperlexic -

DH asked R to point out the "elephant" and instead of pointing to the pictures, R pointed to the word

Or the book he was obsessed with that first year of Preschool...

"Barney's 12 days of Christmas"  - eventually his teacher Xeroxed and laminated it for us so he would not have to do without it over Christmas

Such kindness

We unpack a lot

and snuggle a lot( R will usually sit like a cat on the arm of my/DH's arm chair )

 DH puts together a red ( what else for it is my favorite color ) book shelf that we saw at IKEA that I "must have"( I will take a picture of it finished next time and you will see why I love it so much )

Good bye to Miss Judith

On Friday - we decide to spend the morning working and so we take R to meet Miss Judith for a last day of babysitting

R is perishing to meet Miss Judith - so we ask her to babysit for the day

OMG he is so excited that he is going to see her !! he is literally jumping up and down

He has packed his bag with his essentials - his current obsession Chica Chica boom boom , the numbers and his cap with 5 stuck on it ( in the book 5 is wearing a "top hat" and so this must be dramatized )

They will go to our temporary housing apartment complex  ( for that is where she stays ) .

R loved this place with the Pizza and the mall and the elevators

She sends me a text saying that " I just love R . Having him is a blessing. He gives me so many hugs

We are really broken hearted that miss Judith is leaving for Florida - forever:-(

I don't know how to break this to R as there have been too many goodbyes these past few months and not enough hellos

( So when he tells me in the night that "Miss Judith will come from Florida later" - I don't contradict him)

Zumba

I have started to go to Zumba once a week  -

I dance all my stress away for an hour every Friday , while DH and go swimming at our health club and its very nice to have this hour of pleasure every week 

Planning

One of the things that DH and I do always is plan meals .

One of my friends said that she never plans her meals as she likes to only cook what she is in the mood to eat.

But we hate the hassle of cooking and thinking about what's for dinner.

So DH shops and chops and I cook and plan

The new house

I am so glad to be in a proper house again with all our cooking gadgets  .

I love this kitchen - after the tiny apartment we stayed in for 2 months this is such a nice change !

it does rain ALL the time so you can rarely go outside but this house know this and has many many windows to make up for it( these pictures are from the realtors website and make it look much nicer than it is )

Back on track with the home program

We are still hunting for the therapists that we want to work for R

I also am FINALLY I am trying to get back in the routine of playing with R in the evenings  -

But its not easy - I recognize that anything that is not on his own terms - we have a very hard time getting a back and forth connection going

He loves being with us - just as long as its on his terms

When we try to change the game - he just ignores

Such is his passive aggression

We compensate with atleast creating lots of fun new experiences

Outside ( on the 1 in 10 days that it does not rain )

And in stores when it rains

IKEA is one of our faves

It has a place where you can leave your child to play under supervision and he is simply perishing to go there ( I take a picture of him from outside  - what a lovely thing it is to see your child enjoying themselves while you can shop in peace )

It feels harder than before and I feel guilty about this

Its as though he wants to stay in his comfort zone as much as possible and we have to keep expanding it
Still as I watch DH and R snuggled up in an arm chair (ironically watching Max and his Dad in Parenthood ) -

I think how lucky we are that R is so emotionally connected with us

I think we have a ways to go - in settling in still, finding the right home therapists, getting some leisure in our lives

Getting that rhythm and routine that is essential to a calm and peaceful life

But I think we are on our way