We are settling into our new house sit here in Park Slope after making the move over this weekend. We will be here through most of July. We're still waiting to see when L's radiation will resume, and whether or not we'll do it down here (and find another house sit - ack) or upstate. There are compelling arguments for both, but we are definitely leaning toward the latter. We are all ready to be settled.
The girls are adjusting amazingly well to all the changes - better, I think, than L and I. The baby has had like six different "homes" since leaving China, poor girl! And yet, she is thriving - incredibly, wonderfully - and her attachment is growing stronger every day. Not only to me now, but to L as well. Did I ever write about the hug she gave him in the hospital? I don't think I did.
I took her to visit him in the hospital after a week of not seeing him. Mind you, their attachment to each other was only just really beginning to take off in the weeks just prior to this latest hospitalization. We were all worried that not seeing him would cause a setback. While he was gone, I'd call and have him talk to her on the phone - she'd listen intently and sometimes sign "Daddy" and run off down the hall with the phone. But when I brought her to visit him - oh, man, her face lit up and she was SO happy to see him. Then, she went up to him and he picked her up and she just melted into his arms, giving him the most amazing hug. She just nestled in, her head on his shoulder, her arms around him, for about ten minutes. It was as though she finally (finally!) claimed him.
They are in the other room now - he's giving her the morning bottle. This would have been completely impossible just a few weeks ago. Sigh. It makes me very, very happy to see them together. And I find the process of attachment just fascinating - and miraculous, actually.
So, yeah, she's doing great, that funny baby. Her sister is a lot moodier - she understands more of what's going on and is feeling understandably anxious about it. But still, Ping is doing well, all things considered. She's been going to camp and maintaining connections with some of her core group of buddies for the year. I think the actual move upstate is what's worrying her the most - leaving Brooklyn, leaving her friends.
Ping has been really into the movie My Neighbor Totoro - not surprising since it involves two sisters whose mother is in the hospital and who have just moved to a new house in the country. It's really the first full-length movie that Ping has been really interested in from start to finish. (Unlike Kung Fu Panda, which I tried to take her to this past week. She lasted all of about five minutes into the film before bursting into tears and asking to leave. Too scary.) I think it hits so close to home that she is comforted by it - her parents are too, actually. We've told her to look for Totoros when we move upstate - that they very well may be living in the woods behind our house. She likes that idea.
Speaking of the move, the movers are coming this Saturday to move our stuff upstate. I'm relieved that we are hiring movers - very much so. And I think we will all feel better knowing that all of our things are up there just waiting for us to move and settle into our own space. Look out, dust bunnies, we're on our way.
