Clara had her birthday party on Saturday, which was a huge success. Everyone had a really good time, the weather was perfect for our garden BBQ party (warm but overcast so no need to worry about too much sun, drizzled briefly shortly beforehand but stopped raining before the party and the grass was dry for the babies to crawl around on). Clara had a wonderful time and spent pretty much the entire afternoon up to her elbows in the sandbox! (She loves nothing more than getting dirty! Never mind her party clothes and expensive new shoes!)
On Monday it was Clara's actual birthday. She woke up to find a big, white polar bear next to her bed. She had spotted it before in the spare room and had been eyeing it for weeks (there were 2, one for her and one for her little friend James), so she was soooo excited when she woke up to find it looking at her! She spent a good hour bouncing around in our bed giving it snuggles.
Later that afternoon she had her last swimming class. It was extra special because Daddy came too (school is out - yay!), so she got to swim with both of us, and loved it! She was kicking and splashing and shouting and laughing. Instead of swimming her 3 'bobs' from the side of the pool to me, she got to do it going between us both. She enjoyed it so much that after each turn she did her 'more' sign, so we did it again and again and again!
In the evening our friend Chris came by for dinner and to help Andras move some things, and we had pizza delivered and had a little picnic in the garden. Clara opened her presents from her grandparents and enjoyed pointing out all the birds singing in the garden to Chris, using her bird sign.
On Tuesday morning the special 'big garbage' pick-up truck came that we had ordered for all of our left-over furniture that we didn't want and hadn't sold. Except that on Monday afternoon we had gotten an email from the new tenants to say that they wanted to buy it all! So we had nothing to put out after all! (A bit of a waste of 20 euros, but whatever). Then Tuesday afternoon, after the truck had been and gone, we got another email from the people saying that they had changed their minds! So then we were stuck with all this stuff and no way to get rid of it. I emailed this back to them and they wrote back that they would buy it after all then. Whew! But, on Wednesday night we got another email from them saying that they don't want it and can we just get it out of the apartment!! Unbelievable!! (Meanwhile, the money has been getting transfered into our account and back out again, and in again and back out again!). Like we have time for this ridiculousness!
On Thursday the packers came to pack up all of our things. It was a rather stressful day, not just because of the moving, but because first thing in the morning Andras went with Clara to drop off the recycling...He took her in the baby backpack but set it down on the ground before bending over to throw in the recycling (as per baby backpack instructions). He made sure the kickstand was all the way out. But the sidewalks are horrendous, and were too uneven and the backpack tipped over with Clara in it - face first into the sidewalk with no ability to put her arms out to break her fall! So Andras had to take her to emergency and I had to stay home with the packers. Fortunately, she's ok. There was a lot of blood and it was coming from all around one of her top front teeth, but the doctors checked it and said it's ok, no permanent damage done. Whew! She looks terrible, poor thing, with a big scrape on her chin and above her upper lip, and cuts and bruises on her lips and gums, but the swelling has gone down now and it's getting better. Her first injury-related visit to emergency, and I couldn't even go with her!
We spent the night 'camping' in the apartment, surrounded by stacks of boxes. Clara seemed to think they were great! It was like a box city for her. She's sleeping in her travel cot and we're up in the loft bed (the new tenants bought our mattress from us, so we've still got that to sleep on up there). We're here until Monday, when we hand over our keys and fly to Budapest.
On Friday the movers came and loaded all our stuff onto a big moving truck and took it all away to our new apartment in Hungary. Later that day another new teacher from the school showed up because she had heard we had furniture to sell - and bought all the rest of it! Yay! It was a good day. Until....we got a phone call at 5:30 Friday night to tell us that our landlady in Budapest has pulled out of the rental contract! So now we have no apartment to move into! And our things are already on their way there! Unbelievable!!! (Did I mention that we're going on Monday?) She says that someone offered her 300 euros more so she's cancelled our contract and is giving it to them instead. UNLESS we want to give her 200 euros more, then she'll still give it to us! What a scam! (We are NOT going to do it!) So last night and today we've been on the phone with the real estate agent, the lawyer (apparently it's totally legal!), and other landlords, and are frantically trying to find a new place to live that we can move into in 2 days' time! I've emailed the moving company to tell them not to deliver our stuff there, but they won't get the email until Monday morning. Fortunately, our delivery date isn't until Tuesday, so they should be able to pass on the message in time. We also haven't been able to reach the school to tell them what's going on and see if our stuff can be delivered there if it needs to be, again because it's the weekend. Hopefully on Monday we can reach them. We've already cancelled the phone/TV/internet that was due to be connected. Unfortunately, Mum has already sent us mail there, but we can live without it.
Anyway, I think of all the many, many moves in my past, this one is the most stressful! And we're not even there yet!
