New House

Our big move is over! We've been here for two weeks now and we're really starting to settle in. The settlement was delayed a couple of days and that was a huge curveball. We had finished packing and then had to unpack a bunch of stuff and repack it a few days later. Moving with kids is not easy! I am so so so glad we hired movers. I can't believe we even considered doing it ourselves.

Since we have the garage, we went ahead and asked the movers to keep a bunch of boxes out there. I wanted to keep the house mostly free of boxes and only open them when we are ready to unpack and put them away. It took us a few days to unpack and that was hard to have boxes everywhere. The kids were climbing on them and trying to go through them. On top of that, we didn't have a washer and dryer until we'd been here for 9 days. There was laundry everywhere! Thank goodness that's over with. We still have A LOTTTT to do in the garage, but we're working on it. One day I'll actually be able to park in there. Possibly after the yard sale this month. We just have so much stuff.

I think the kids are happy here so far. They seem happy, especially Audrey. She is SO SO excited to have her own room. I wasn't sure what to expect because she's shared a room with JJ for so long, and knowing Audrey, I thought we might have some trouble getting her to sleep without him with her. But to my surprise she was fine! I think the novelty of it outweighs any feelings of loneliness or scared (of the dark). She spends quite a bit of time up in her room playing. She loves that she can close and lock the door when she doesn't want the boys to bother her. This is not so great for JJ - he always wants to be by her side - but I think its good for audrey to feel she has some space of her own.

JJ was the cutest ever when I showed him his new room. He walked in and I said, "This is your room, JJ". He turned to me, hands clasped in front of him and said, "MY room? Ohhhh, Thank you mommy!". He looked so sweet and excited. He was not so thrilled the first night at bedtime when he realized he was alone, but after that first night he's been fine. We ordered Audrey a new bed, so Joshua got her old bed. That's right. My boy is in a big bed now. He's been climbing out of his crib for months, so it makes sense for him to be in a big bed. The plan is to try to get Nathaniel to sleep through the night so we can start putting him in the crib in his room with JJ. I'm not sure how or when that will happen...

They haven't mentioned the old house very much..if at all..since we've been here. We've walked to the park almost every day, and have gone out back to ride bikes every day too. I really like having the alley back there. We've met several neighbors and there are lots of other kids playing out there on the weekends and evenings. We don't spend as much time in the back yard as in the garage/alley. I love how many families there are out walking and riding bikes and spending time at the playground. We even ran in to another family from the kids' school on a walk one night. I do feel bad for josie. She used to have a huge yard to run around in and chase squirrels. And now she really does not seem to like being outside. The yard is too small to run in, but she doesn't even want to sunbathe. Maybe she's still adjusting.

Overall, we love it. We have so many things here that we didn't have before - storage, our own bathrooms, more usable space, the list goes onnnnn...But I have to admit that I was a little sad to leave the old house. Audrey and our neighbor's daughter had just become best friends and played together every day for hours. It was hard to tell her she won't see her friend anymore. It was really, really hard to walk one final time across the backyard. I cried the ugly cry while I walked past the playground set out back. That's where Audrey and JJ learned to climb and swing, it was their fort, their airplane, their train, their clubhouse. Seeing the spot of worn grass where their feet dragged beneath the swings, and the dirt where they landed at the bottom of the slide. It really felt like I was walking away from the baby years of our family. That's the house we brought JJ and Nathaniel home to. I know it was just a house, and a house I (mostly) hated, but there were a whole lot of memories there. And I'm a sentimental person so of course this was hard on me.

I know that this new house will soon feel like home for us and that' we'll love it here. I'm working hard on making it feel that way for the kids, and I think it already does. We're excited for this new chapter!