Mommy Mondays: Say Goodbye

Hello all! It's good to be back after a week off from blogging. Last week was pretty nuts - we had our farewell BBQ last Saturday, then spent the beginning of the week organizing and packing. The move itself was crazy. Four packers the first day, six the second (so yeah, we spent A LOT of money in tips), and stuff going in four different directions: our luggage, unaccompanied baggage, storage, and everything else that will get to Russia about a month after we do. I made some packing errors: no diapers or wipes in the unaccompanied baggage. Yeeeeah. But mostly it went pretty smoothly. It's nice to have all that behind us and be able to relax (sort of) for our final week in the states.

Moving, as you all know, is tough. Moving with a two year old is something else entirely. Jack was out of sorts all last week. This is a kid who never needed sleep training, but I felt like I was starting over, the way he screamed at every single nap and bedtime. Now that we're in the hotel, he's back to sleeping like a champ (thank goodness!), even in his pack n' play, which is in all honesty way too small. But he's not in a toddler bed yet, so it's the best we can do. He's even eating better than he was last week, which just goes to show how much change can affect a little kid. Despite the fact that he most likely won't even remember living in Alexandria, he still has to go through the "goodbye" process, just like the rest of us.

On Saturday we finished the move-out process. You know, making sure we'd gotten everything out of the house, leaving the keys, paying the maids for the final clean. Jackie explored what was left of his house for a little while, and then it was time to go. As generally happens when we tell him to say goodbye, he ignores us, and then about two minutes later starts crying that he didn't get to say goodbye. We'd forgotten to drop off the keys with our landlady, so we went by the house one last time. Jack got the chance to say his official goodbye, waving at the house from his car seat, and back we went to the "hotel house."

I can't say I'm going to miss the place we called home for the last three years - it was sort of falling apart around us, and John always hated it so it never really felt like home - but it will always be Jack's first house, the house he came home to after he was born, the place he took his first steps and said his first words. There are a lot of good memories tied up in that house.

I always liked that blue door.

Riding the trike on our street.

 

Last family photo in front of the house.

As for saying goodbye to all our wonderful friends, well, I haven't really allowed myself to go there yet. I guess I won't be able to put it off much longer, though. We leave one week from today. The only consolation is that, unlike Jackie, I have a million wonderful memories to hold onto.