We owned the house on Chambers Drive for 8 years and finally passed it on to the new owners as of 7/26/13 at 5pm.  Stuart and I went back to the house a few times that day to pack up the remaining things.  The house looked nice and clean again.  We were happy that we were able to make the deadline just in time.  It was sad to say goodbye to the house where the boys were born and where we had good memories.  Even Connor had said a couple of times “I miss the house…I miss everywhere” when he learned that we were moving out.  But we are excited to look forward to finding our new home. 

    With all that is going on lately, we have not paid much attention to Connor’s birthday.  But Connor remembered well that his birthday was coming; he had been reminding us that it would be “Connor B’s birthday”.  On his birthday 7/25/13 morning, he even told me “Happy Birthday to Me”, and the rest of the day he was singing his own birthday song.  He was so excited. 

    We managed to do a low key celebration for Connor that evening.  We took them to Chuck E Cheese after school per Connor’s request.  Logan loved the driving and shooting games while Connor liked a variety.  Connor sometimes just enjoyed holding a coin and walking around to look for a machine that he liked.  Connor was scared to see Chuckie and wanted us to hold him every time he passed by.  We left the place two hours later to go home for Connor’s favorite ice cream cake.  The apartment was still not unpacked then and we could not find a lighter for the candle.  We sang the song to Connor, and we pretended to blow the candle.  Connor was so excited to eat the cake; he kept saying “yummy in my tummy” as he enjoyed every bite.

    I have forgotten about the school birthday celebration, so the teacher suggested that they would do a little circle time for Connor on 7/26/13.  At the end of the day, Connor told me that the class sang a birthday song to him, but I did not hear any more details about it.

    Stuart and I had a very busy day on Wed 7/24.  Once we dropped off the kids at schools in the morning, we arrived at the title company to sign off the final paperwork for selling our house.  We then rushed home to get ready for the movers and do more packing.  The movers arrived as planned, and they immediately jumped in and started moving our boxes and furniture.  Stuart and I had color-coded all the items, and they loaded up the ones to the apartment first.  We all drove to the apartment and unloaded.  Then we returned home for the second half.  We took a short break for lunch, then they loaded up the remaining of our big items and boxes and moved them to the storage.  After almost 5 hours of hard work, the move was completed, and we were pleased with the work they had done.  Stuart and I cleaned up just a little bit more, then it was time to get ready to pick up the kids from schools.  We had dinner out, and afterward we picked up Scottie from the house and all moved into the apartment together. 

    Scottie seems to like the new place; he explored every corner of the apartment immediately, then settled in on the couch with us in the evening.  He has been eating fine and has not cried much at all.  He likes looking outside through the windows.  We have a nice view of trees, the lake and the hill.  The boys liked the apartment too; Connor kept referring to it as “the hotel”.  The boys have been doing fine not being too loud and being respectful to our neighbors.  They bathed well as usual, then I read to both of them together at bedtime.  They had learned the new routine of reading together with Daddy while I was away, so the transition was easy.  The first night here was the very first time for the boys to share a room together by themselves.  Logan did very well falling asleep quickly and stayed asleep despite the noises Connor was making on the first night.  Connor took over an hour to finally fall asleep.  We had to pay him several visits in the room; he whined and talked so loud at times.  The next morning, right at 6:35, we saw the two little guys coming to our room.  Logan was so proud to tell us that he woke up with the “Bunny clock” and that he woke Connor up too.  The next couple of nights they both went to sleep well as usual again.  We are very pleased how well the boys adjusted to the new place and the new routine.

    Thank you to everyone for the support this past week!  The terrible news came to me on 7/18/13 at 1:20pm that my father had passed.  Knowing that the boys were in good hands with Stuart and Thuy’s sister offered to drive me to Oakland, I decided to catch the first available non-stop flight at 5pm back to New Mexico.  It was very sad when I arrived to my parents’ house, but fortunately many of my stepmom’s families and friends were there to support her and to pay their respect to my dad.

   Dora and Gloria drove from Colorado and arrived the next morning; Yvonne also flew in that evening.  The next couple of days, we all stayed together to morn and to plan the funeral.  We were able to find a very comforting funeral home and arrange for the visitation on Sunday 7/21/13.  Some relatives also helped us by adding some Chinese tradition to the funeral.  Allen finally flew in on Sunday with Katie and Kevin after lots of delay trouble at the airport the day before.  There were also other relatives flying or driving back for the funeral.  Since Logan and Connor are very young and we had the house situation, I did not ask Stuart to make the trip.  The evening of the funeral went smoothly; many families, relatives and friends came to spend few hours with us to pay our dad the last visit. 

    On Monday 7/22/13, we, along with majority of our families and friends, gathered at the funeral home again to accompany our dad on his last journey.  We did a final praying and a flower ceremony, then we were on our escorted possession driving to the crematory.  The final goodbye was very difficult, but our dad is now resting in peace.

    For the rest of the time in New Mexico, my sisters and I helped sort out some of our dad’s belonging and did some cleaning up.  We also took our mom to see a doctor for a checkup.  Yvonne was able to convince our mom to go stay in Florida with them for an extended visit.  So Dora, Gloria and I left on Tue 7/23 while Yvonne and mom flew home on Wed 7/24.

    Stuart did a great job holding down the fort the five days that I was away.  I was so thrilled to see Stuart at the airport and then we picked up the boys at school.  Connor kept staring at me and giggling, and he kept saying “Mommy is here…Mommy is here”.   Logan did not give me any initial reaction, but shortly after, he just held on to me the rest of the evening.  It was so nice to be home with my boys again.

    Because of the school restructuring, Connor was moved to a preschool classroom as of today.  Connor did a wonderful job potty training just in time for this move.  I am proud to say that Connor is doing great keeping his underwear dry everyday and I have not had to wash a single poopy dirty one.

     This new classroom is much bigger and looks quite nice; this was the classroom that Stuart and I visited before we decided to take Connor to this school a year ago, so we are happy that Connor is going to spend some time there.  Connor now will have more classmates and two new teachers.  Fortunately, one of his toddler teachers is coming to this class to help transition him along with few other toddlers.

    This morning, as expected, Connor did not like the change.  He immediately started sobbing and hugging me when I put his sleeping box into his new cubby.  He cried even more when I took him into the morning drop off play area.  I had to say a quick goodbye to minimize his sadness.  At the end of the day, when Stuart and I picked him up, Connor was happily doing his cutting “job”.  He wanted to finish cutting the entire strip into small pieces before he left.  The teacher told us that Connor was sad for a little bit in the morning, but quickly adapted to the new classroom.  He even peed in the large big kid restroom just like everyone else.

    I took Scottie in for his 6 month doctor visit today.  He was due for a blood draw and some vaccinations.  He now has a new doctor as his last doctor for the previous 8 years had just moved away.  Scottie was very cooperative in his old age these days.  He tolerated the physical exam, the blood draw and urine collection, the brushing and even the car ride very well.  After the physical exam, the doctor reported that Scottie was doing fine, other than some slight arthritic changes and the same minor murmur.  He had yet lost another 4oz to be only 6lbs 10oz, but the loss was not too significant over this period of time.  But I was told that I don’t have to stick with his kidney formula, and I should liberally give him anything that he likes to eat (like tuna or canned chicken).  The last report, the blood test result, will be available tomorrow.