‘Twas the night before our walk-thru and all through the house, not a single box was packed…okay, I’m obviously not good with rhyming, so I’m just going to spare you and stop there. Good news is that we get the keys for our new house tomorrow; bad news is that we get the keys tomorrow and have only 2 boxes packed. I wish that were a typo. If only it were 20. I must also confess that I only packed one of the boxes; Erajh packed the other. A week from tomorrow movers will be arriving at our door and we sure as hell better have more than 2 boxes packed. So much to do, so much to do. And all of this on the heels of our trip to New York and an exhausting 3 days at BlogHer12. Have I mentioned that my suitcase is still packed and in our living room? Oh, if only I were kidding. A few less clothes to box up, I suppose.
As excited as I am for this new chapter (and all the extra square footage that it comes with), I can’t help but be a little sad about our move. We’re leaving the only home my kids have ever known. I mean, Hazeline will be fine, but Greenleigh has already expressed that she doesn’t want to leave our house. We’ve tried to explain that all her things will be coming with us and be put in her new room, but she isn’t having it. And hearing her say that makes it all the more difficult for me, who already gets overly attached to places and memories associated with those places. Why must I be so crazy?
But then again, you have to consider, we moved to this townhouse about 6 months after we got married and this has been our home since then. For nearly 6 years. Sure, we rent, so we always knew it wasn’t a ‘forever” type of situation, but we have a lot of memories here – holidays, milestones, parties, etc. When I brought my kids home from the hospital, I took them to this house. Yes, the new place will be better and we’ll build memories there, but… Part of me doesn’t want to leave our townhouse. I just want to tell the new landlord we’ll stay and pretend like the last two weeks haven’t happened. But I know that’s crazy. The other part of me is scouring Pinterest at all hours for decorating ideas for the new place because I’m just so excited. I have a new-found obsession with light blue living rooms, and Pinterest is my fix, but I digress.
I’ll deal with my mixed feelings on this big step. Our stuff will be moved next week, and we’ll start a new chapter in a city not far from here. And life will go on. A little different – a new grocery store, a new way to work, new places to order take out from – but it will go on. I do worry about Greenleigh though. It’s my job to make this transition easy for her, and I don’t know exactly how to do that.
Anyone have ideas on how to make moving easier for toddlers? I thought about having her pack a box from her room, you know stuffed animals or something easy like that (unless of course she’s good at it, and then I’m going to have her pack a ton more), and I’m going to keep her in her current daycare, but other than that, I’m a little lost. Ideas?
Hi Jennifer,
We have moved from MA to TX with 7 yrs old and 5yrs old. I know you guys moving not as far, but still no matter how far you move ….its a change for kids. I see that you have explained to your kids that their toy s, clothes,
Bed are going with you, because my kids too were confused about that.
Before we sat them down to tell them that we are moving we have researched all the exciting things that we can do with them around the new house ( zoo, museums, water parks, ice cream shops, etc). That helped a lot.
My husband recorded the inside of their school – library, classes, bigger playgrounds
I was very worry about my kids, but kids are like sponges…. they will soak everything in and accept new surroundings.
Mommies always worry its in our blood.
Good luck!
Magda
Moving is hard at any age, we have had to move three times with kids, one of the many parts of the military life that my family lives. When we had toddlers, we moved 3,000 miles away from family. First Born was 3 1/2 and the Middle Child was 18 months. We prepared them for weeks, talking about it, showing First Born pictures of NY and our new house. He wasn’t thrilled but he wasn’t awful either. Once we got there, it was a different story, he didn’t sleep for weeks, he complained about missing family, he complained about missing his old room. I don’t think that there is any way to make it easier before the move but afterwards, I suggest decorating and unpacking her room first, do not pack her most favorite items, and do not pack a set of sheets. It is awful not being able to find sheets for the beds the first night, so if you don’t have them packed and you know right where they are, it makes life easier for everyone. She will also need a lot of cuddles and attention at first. Talk a lot about old memories, validate her fears and feelings, and talk excitedly about the new memories that you can make. However, above all else, prepare yourself for a month of awfulness while you settle in. Then it will get better.
-Carmen
Oh, Jen. So excited for you… and amazed that you are keeping up the blog! I love reading about your life…
The good things about your move: you will go to a bigger space where, as you should constantly be excited about, New And Exciting Adventures Will Happen. 🙂 Every fun thing you can think of- everything exciting in the world- will happen in your new house. 🙂 Another good thing: all of her family, including extended family, will come see her and love her in the new house. Another good thing: she will get to help pick out how she wants her room to look.
I think kids, in general, feed off of our feelings… And moving, regardless of the extent of it, is stressful for adults. I swear that El Nino didn’t calm down until we calmed down- and we couldn’t do that for a few weeks. The other thing that seemed to wig him out was seeing empty rooms- especially rooms without HIS stuff in it. So, if you can, get her room done as soon as possible. I also think he was thrown by our lack of routine… we had a routine in our old house and until we got settled in, that routine was all screwy.
For us, El Nino was super whiny, had trouble sleeping and was eating poorly. He was uber clingy too, which didn’t help with the unpacking. I forced myself, regularly, to stop tackling the overwhelming to-do list, so I could sit on the floor and play with him. That helped. Also… try to remember that, once you get there, you (theoretically) can take the rest of your life to unpack… 🙂
It won’t be easy- on any front. But if thousands of people can do it everyday, with minimal notice and much bigger families, you can pull it off too. 🙂 GOOD LUCK AND I CAN’T WAIT TO READ ABOUT IT! Yeeeeaaaayyyyyyy! 🙂