We celebrated our 6-month house-aversary last week. Back in February, we bought a house and moved in 3 days later. It was a house that we toured and fell in love with in January. We made an offer in the morning. By that evening, the sellers accepted our offer. Then, it was almost 5 weeks of packing and stress and planning.
Between the time the sellers accepted our offer and when we signed all the papers on the closing day, Lisa and I discussed plans on making the transition as easy and stressfree for our kids. All 4 of our kids are super sensitive to change. In our old home, if we moved furniture or rooms around, they paced and it was stressful for them.
That's why it took about a month to pack up everything in our old home. All of our kids noticed that I was taking items off the walls and shelves and removing items from each room and putting them into boxes. Early on, I noticed Sophie hid every time I used the packing tape gun for the boxes. Eventually, Lisa had to make up boxes in the evening with the door shut.
On our moving day, we were finally done late afternoon. Lisa returned the U-Haul. We loaded the kids into our vehicle and made the 15-minute journey to our new house. I sat in the back seat. Our kids had no idea what was going on.
When we pulled into our driveway, Lisa took Coco and Sophie. I took Lobo and Willa. Lisa and I were completely exhausted. We sat on the sofa and watched as our kids paced throughout the house sniffing and occasionally looking at us as if to say, "Where are we, Mommies?"
We scattered their doggy beds throughout the house along with all of their favorite blankets. Our bed was set up. Their water bowls were filled with fresh water. We had homemade treats in our hands.
After a half-hour, we got up and I heated up some leftovers from lunch while Lisa made dinner for our kids.
We had made lots of extra homemade meals and treats prior to moving.
Surprisingly, our kids ate with gusto.
After Lisa and I ate a quick dinner, we sat on the sofa for family snuggle time. All of our kids joined us. We watched a couple episodes of whatever series we were watching at the time.
That evening, I tucked Lisa and the kids into bed. I stayed up later to work on blog columns and other online stuff.
I thought for sure our kids would continue to pace and wander.
But, they didn't.
They slept sound.
The following day, we went about our normal routine. Our kids ate breakfast with gusto. They ate their afternoon snack with gusto. They napped sound while Lisa and a friend of ours ventured to our old home.
After Lisa turned in the keys to our old home and gathered the last of our belongings, she returned to our new home. The house we had just bought 3 days prior.
Our kids were excited to see Lisa. Then, after Lisa settled in and they were taken out, they found their comfy spots and napped.
We were both shocked.
We honestly thought it would take a week or longer for them to adjust and settle and be able to sleep soundly.
But no...
Our kids immediately embraced the difference.
There was no stress due to unnecessary and deliberate noise from...
Our kids could find their comfy spots to nap and know they would not be disturbed by unnecessary and deliberate noise from...
Our kids could run around and roam their outdoor play area without deliberate distractions from...
We did not have to revolve our kid's meals and snacks around...
We did not have to revolve family snuggle time around...
Our kids were not in a constant state of panic from the time (?) got up until...
We did not have to wash our kid's paws because (?) couldn't part from her phone to pick up dog shit.
Lisa wasn't wakened at all hours of the night because our (?) bedroom was above ours and she set our kids off with her obnoxious amount of noise.
In the here and now...
What a difference.
It's like night and day.
All the way around.
For all of us.
But more importantly, our kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment