River Trail Apartments

    At the beginning of April we stayed in a hotel for ten days after we moved out of ShoreView Apartments because our lease ended on March 30th. One day I was called a few times by our new apartment complex, where our new lease was scheduled to start on April 15th, hence staying in a hotel. I explained everything in the hotel post linked above, so I won't rewrite it, but we ended up moving in a week early on April 8th. 

   My parents and nieces, Peyton and Helena, came down to visit for a few hours, to see the hotel and the new (empty) place, after the movers were done for the day. We downsized from the previous spacious 2-bedroom/2-bathroom apartment to a small 1-bedroom/1-bathroom, but it still felt like a big step up after being in a hotel! You can see some of the pictures of my parents and Peyton and Helena in the middle of that same hotel post.

I kept taking pictures to see how long they could hold the box, haha!

All the stuff we brought for this apartment, but decided we didn't need, so Michael took it
back to the storage unit. Plus all the broken down boxes for when we move again.

   The landscaping and scenery in this apartment complex is gorgeous, especially by the river, and there is a pretty big sized hiking trail area behind the main buildings. Michael has been walking back there a lot recently. He used to take Sasha every time, but said all that exercise made her have to go to the bathroom too much and he was tired of picking it up. Ha!  

   I love taking walks in the evening as the sun sets, even when it's really hot and humid. Clearly you can see why. Today it got up to 102 degrees for a little bit!! Sometimes I'll show Michael some of my pictures and in disbelieve he says, "You didn't take that! It's too good! You got that one off the apartment website." Is that a compliment or not? 

   Lately I have been walking around the parking lot area more than in the trail area, but here are some pictures from when I had gone "hiking" before.  I saw a bunny once, and also a couple by one of the sidewalks near one of the buildings next to the river. In the trail, I got a picture of a skinny snake before it quickly slithered away from me. Later, I looked up the colors and it was a poisonous coral snake- yikes! Near the water there are a lot of small black crabs. I thought they were big spiders at first. (I'm looking up pictures on Google and it might be a Mangrove Tree Crab? Even though all the ones I saw were on the ground/ in the leaves.)

  These next two pictures show the beginning of the trail and the cut through part that go behind our building and the building next to us. That part of the trail is what you can see out of our bedroom window. Our "backyard", per se. We are happy we got that apartment, because originally we were going to be in apartment on the other side, looking out into the parking lot. Blech! :)

   Here are some other random "around the apartment" photos that I have taken since April. Sasha has been spending a lot of time sleeping in our bed. Two weeks ago, after we got back from one of Emma's doctor appointments, she was in bed for eight hours in the middle of the day, without getting off the bed or needing me to take her outside! She will be 15 years old in a few weeks though. I'm glad she still has lots of energy to run at the ducks. And the way she barks and becomes the most vicious beast whenever she sees another dog- it is embarrassing. Does she think we own the whole apartment complex and no other dog is allowed within a 5 mile radius? Sheesh!! She still gets "growl-y" with Emma too when she's sprinting and scooting around. It makes me sad. She's been home from the NICU for over 4 years. "Come on, dog. Be a nice big sister. Emma isn't even scooting near your food bowl area."

Personalized "Emma" book from my Aunt Sue Ann! :)

Super soft big bunny that she got from Michael's Aunt Debbie for Easter!!

  ^^ Emma drinking formula from a 30mL syringe! Big stuff! We had to push a little bit into her mouth each time, but she was drinking it. Yay, that is big progress for her. She used to like to drink it from the end of the feeding bag, but she gets a lot more in a short amount of time this way. Below, we were watching "Obi-Wan Kenobi" on Disney+. This picture was from June, and we still have two episodes left. For some reason we didn't watch any episodes in July! Little Princess Leia is so cute!

Chasing an armadillo.

Emma is getting better about writing her thank you notes. She will keep the marker in her hand
longer these days. And she'll go along with it when I tell her "more". I apologized for making her
write three extra thank you cards because these turned out so well that I had to keep them!

Unpacking (some of) her monthly medical supplies.

  Lots of around the house pictures. But it does make sense that I have more than I did last summer when I was still working two days on/ two days off. I sent Michael a long thank you text the other day about how I think about how happy I am to be able to stay at home with Emma all the time, but I forget to actually thank him and express my appreciation and verbally acknowledge all of his hard work that makes my amazing job (paid in laughs and kisses, which are not tax deductible) completely possible!!

That shell chair was the best $25 I have ever spent! From Walmart.
I'm sitting in it right now as I type up this blog. Honestly, I feel (and my back feels)
that it is more comfortable than the soft, expensive swivel chair!

  I was telling Michael last night that I am actually starting to feel like a "real mom" because I have been so busy lately -probably because a big chunk of my time has been consumed with writing so many blog posts!!- I used to watch a lot of TV and now I maybe have time for one episode of New Girl at night after Michael gets home. But during the day, I feel like I am zooming around the apartment doing stuff (her treatments, taking her outside to get fresh air, taking Sasha outside, picking up packages from the mail, doing so much laundry- we are blasting through it since we are going outside more and it's been so hot, so we are changing our clothes more often now-, calling doctors or the insurance company, paying bills, doing online check in's for her doctor appointments and therapy, making sure I'm keeping up with her formula feeding schedule, attending to her needs- sprinting, holding, playing at her music table, diaper changes, making sure she keeps her glasses on, etc) yet somehow still not crossing anything off my To Do list!

Mother's Day photos with my girl!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  A turtle that I helped on one of my walks. He was walking so far along that sidewalk, trying to get under the fence every two feet. I saw an opening  a ways to the right in the grass and carefully carried him. He crawled under and slid down the hill into the retention pond. Cannon ball!! It was hilarious and I wish I had gotten a video, but it happened so fast. No breaks!!

  This complex has food trucks quite frequently, but we have only tried a few because there aren't many with intriguing menus. So far my favorite was Fox Fired Pizza. (Not the one in the picture.) I really liked their Mimi's Pie. It had fennel sausage, pepperoni, sweet peppers, roasted tomato, charred onion, and arugula. I hope they come back again this month, or in September.

One of her "cheese" faces. She LOVES playing in Mommy's "self care" box!! :)

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The friendly ducks! One of them had a bunch of baby goslings recently.
Michael said we should name the mom Ryan. I asked him why.
He paused and said, "Ryan Gosling." Da da Ch. (Handsome actor.)

Emma spent a whole hour sprinting and playing in our bedroom one Saturday morning.
And as always, Sasha was supervising. At one point she was staring at me, like,
"Are you just going to keep letting her make a huge mess?"
But I'm one of those moms who is like, "She is happy. She is keeping busy. What's the harm?"
I was watching her and when she started playing with the books I got up because she was about to start ripping pages out, but other than that, the rest was fine. It didn't take long for me to clean it up.
According to a Buzzfeed quiz, I'm a Cool Mom! But it only asked five questions.
Still.. the quiz was right. ;)

Blue hair for about a month as of May 10th.

   Our lease here is up at the beginning of October, so we are really hoping our house is finished being built by then! Especially since the guy told us "it could be done by May" when we were looking at buying it. Lies!! Guess I should have asked, "May of what year?".. Michael picked this complex because they had short lease options (we got the six month lease) and the rent is $650 less per month than the previous apartment. He has definitely been sacrificing his time and energy though, because it currently takes him at least an hour to get to and from work every day. On Fridays he always stops by the house to check for progress updates. We're hoping they get the stucco on this week!!