A Land Where Fire Hydrants Look Like Kneeling Children

It’s our last week in New York. Last week, Andrew drove the girls and me to PA and then took the train back to New York, leaving us to spend the week with Mom and Dad. Though it was a fun week for Lucia (The hose! Watering flowers! The playground! Bubbles! Chalk and Pop-Pop’s stones-and-squares game!), it turned out not to be the relaxing getaway I’d assumed it would be. I’d unwisely taken on a very large freelance editing project, which would have been fine—but Greta got sick mid-week and threw everything into an uproar. She had a high-ish fever, which I managed with Motrin, and a trip to a local pediatrician to rule out an ear infection (there was some ambiguous ear pulling) revealed an eye infection instead. She was uncomfortable, and teething, and unable to either settle herself to go to sleep or to stay asleep. She slept with me most of the week, which was great for her but not so great for my own sleep.

By the time Andrew returned, I had past the point of zombie-land and was inhabiting a world where fire hydrants began looking like kneeling children as I drove my car. Oh, and when I was lying in bed with Greta one night, I couldn’t figure out where the door to my room was, or how the bed was oriented. I’m not sure when I’ve been so tired. And, because of my freelance project, I felt unable to either nap or go to bed early.

But there were lots of brighter spots to the week, too. Lucia, Greta, Molly, Luca, and I were all able to go to Dad’s retirement luncheon—and the three kids were perfect for the entire two and a half hours. The babies slept, and Lucia played quietly with some tins of candy. It was incredible. Molly and Luca were there with us for a couple of days, which was great, even though Greta showed an alarming determination to grab Luca’s eye sockets. Greta demonstrated her new mobility—not yet crawling forward, but inching backwards and also scooting around on her bottom. One morning, when she rose at 5:00am, I closed my eyes for a moment while lying on the couch; when I opened them, she’d scooted off her play blanket and was chewing on the side of a recliner. Fun times.

Now we’re back, and we have exactly one week until moving day. I am finishing up my epic goodbye-New-York blog post, currently an epic 3,500 words long. Stay tuned.