So. We’re moved in. All of our stuff has been moved from one house and stuffed into the other. And until my parents arrived on Saturday night, I would have been hard-pressed to say that anything was organized at all. But we’re getting there – slowly but surely. The kitchen is completely unpacked and looks fabulous (thanks, Mom) and we can actually see the floor in most rooms by now.
We realized a few things during this move – the major one being how much I detest moving. I know it’s been said before, by me many, many times, but we plan to dig our heels in and stay here for awhile. This house suits us. And we like living in the east end so far.
Our house, it turns out needs a bit more work than we originally thought. Thankfully, we are ok with that, as it was part of the reason we went with an older home rather than brand new. Our first project will be a bathroom remodel. The inspector told us we’d need to re-grout. Why not re-tile if you have re-grout? And why not re-model if you have to re-tile? Yay! We have big plans and are excited to start. We need to get some inspiration photos, but think ‘spa’ and that’s the feel we’re going for. Very excited.
And now, after my umpteenth move, a list of moving dos and don’ts – for those of you thinking of taking the plunge:
- Hire movers. It might seem expensive, but trying to round up enough friends with pick-up trucks and big muscles gets old – especially when they’ve helped you move 300 times already. Movers do all the hard work. You get to stand there and direct traffic and point to where the fridge goes rather than try to jam it through the front door when it’s obvious too big to fit. Let someone else worry about that part.
- Take your friends up on offers to babysit (kids or dogs). As much as you think you won’t have to, trying to get organized AND entertain an 18-month old at the same time isn’t easy. And the dog will hate being locked in the backyard while strangers roam about the house. There will be barking. And whining.
- Bridge finance, if you can. We took possession on Friday and had to be out on the following Thursday. That gave us plenty of time to get organized and we never once felt really rushed.
- Plan to move on the day of or the day before garbage day. It wasn’t factored into our original plans, but that’s how it turned out and it worked out fabulously.
- Try to avoid the last minute, throw-it-in-a-box-with-other-crap-type packing without proper labelling. We tend to do that with the stuff we leave out the longest (a.k.a. the most important stuff – telephones, pens, remotes, toiletries) and then when we get to the new house, we wrack our brains to remember where it ended up. Detailed labelling pays off in spades in the first few days. You won’t regret it.
- Try to unpack one room at a time. Go in there, get it all done and move on. You’ll feel a greater sense of accomplishment having a few completely finished rooms rather than a little bit done in each one.
The end (of the unpacking) is in sight for us now. I’m thrilled to see our new home finally taking shape. Our focus will soon change from buying, selling, worrying about selling, panicking about not selling fast enough, actually selling, packing, moving, unpacking to…life. Just plain old life, where you don’t think twice about where you live, you just live. I can’t wait.
I dream. Not everyone does, or at least they claim not to because they don’t remember the dreams they had by the time they wake up. Not me. I dream. I dream hard and loud and colourful and brilliant. And often. And what feels like all night long. I always have.
So when Jaia was born, I often wondered if babies dream, and if so, what they dream of. Especially when they are very tiny.
As Jaia gets older and wiser and has some experiences under her belt, I assumed that she must be dreaming of ‘things’, but had no confirmation until last night.
Let me backtrack for a second here. When we were in Saskatchewan, we discovered something about Jaia that we didn’t know. She loves to go on the swings. It must be something she’s grown to love since going to daycare, because quite frankly, we haven’t spent that much time at the park. The closest one to us at our old house wasn’t really that close, so since she’s been of the age to enjoy it, we haven’t really gone.
In Saskatchewan, the trailer we were staying in AND the cabin on Clearwater Lake had swingsets right beside them. When she first laid eyes on them she started saying “weeeee”. We were confused. What on earth is a “weeee”? (The Nintendo Wii crossed our minds, but no, probably not). Then as we approached the swings, she started repeating it over and over. She calls the swing the ‘weeee’, as in she goes “WEEEEEE” when flying up in the air in the swing.
Hilarious. By the end of the week she was waking up in the morning and immediately pointing to the door saying “weeeee”, not wanting anything to do with breakfast, a diaper change, a clothes change. She had a one-track mind and she had us all saying “weeee” as she dragged us over, holding us by a finger in the direction of the swingset.
So last night, Jaia woke up in the middle of the night calling for us. This is not a surprise as in the last two weeks we’ve ripped her from her crib, plopped her in a giant bed and then moved it to a new and very unfamiliar room. So when she called out I went in to make sure she was ok and decided to lay down with her until she fell back to sleep.
My alterior motive was to get a bit of shut-eye on a bed, since Dan and I have been sleeping on our camping mattresses on the floor for a couple of nights. They are unbearable, but I do miss my bed. So the chance to spend a few hours sleeping on Jaia’s brand-spanking new mattresses seemed like an excellent idea at 3:00 am.
After laying there for a few minutes and just starting to drift off, Jaia suddenly shouts, “WEEEEE” in her sleep. I’m serious. She made me laugh out loud.
So, my original question is finally answered. Jaia does dream, of wonderful things. I just hope that’s always the way.
I don’t know if it’s the people, the history, the stories Dan tells or the beauty of it all, but I can count myself as a lover of the Prairies, and Saskatchewan in particular. We just returned from my 4th visit since Dan and I started dating and I love it more every time I’m there. The scenery that some people call ‘flat and boring’ is anything but that to me (more photos from our visit here).
The heart of our latest visit was Dan’s cousin Melanie’s wedding, but we spent most of our time at the family ‘cabin’ (translation for those not from the Prairies – the family cottage) on Clearwater Lake. I hesitate to try to give a history of this little piece of land because I’m not sure it could do it justice. The cousins have so many memories from childhoods spent there, many of which I heard about while sitting on the deck, beer in hand, in full relaxation mode. There’s just nothing like being at a cottage/cabin. And one that your husband spent time at as a child is that much more special.
This trip felt all about traditions for us. Traditions of the past carried over to the present. One example is the ol’ turkey tub. This square metal tub was used to bathe Dan’s aunts as kids, Dan, his siblings and cousins and now, Jaia, Dan’s daughter. A generational bathtub. Adorable. Jaia loved having her bath out on the deck. She did not love Jen’s dog, Benny, trying to join her in the tub. (I think he was after the rubber ducky).
Melanie and Darcy’s wedding was smack-dab in the middle of our visit. It took place on Darcy’s family’s farm in a town called Beechy. From where we were staying at Clearwater, the directions included getting to the main road and then turning at the the third farm on the left…some 25 or 26kms away. And that’s what I absolutely adore about that province. You can breathe. You can’t feel crowded or claustrophobic when there are only 3 houses in 26 kms. And there’s no getting lost or missing a turn.
Above all though, my favourite part of the trip was seeing Jaia play with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins (and for us to spend time with them too). We so rarely get to that part of the world – our last trip out west was in August 2007 – and I find it heartbreaking that Jaia will grow up so far away from her family – both Dan’s side and mine, who also live too far away.
It really makes me wish we could go back to the old days when family wasn’t sprinkled all over the country or all over the world, where cousins grow up knowing each other and when Sunday dinner together with parents didn’t involve an airplane ride. I miss family. All of them. And time spent with them makes me miss them even more. I wish we all lived closer to each other. I wish it wasn’t only weddings or funerals that brought us together. I wish you didn’t have to watch jaia grow up by reading our blog or getting photos in the mail. I wish we could just pop by. I wish we could take trips together rather than to see each other.
I know we all do our best to make the best of the miles that stand between us…I just wish we didn’t have to.
A beautiful milestone for a beautiful lady, then and now.
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We love you.
xoxo
The next two weeks are going to bring changes about for Jaia (and all of us). Big changes.
We are moving. I can’t believe how fast it has come upon us, and if you could see the state my house is in at the moment, you’d know I’m not lying. The ‘real’ packing only started this weekend, and with a 6 day trip to Saskatchewan scheduled between now and moving day, I can honestly say that we have definitely left things – everything – to the last minute. Whoops.
The next two weeks will also see Jaia leaving her wonderful daycare provider. She is very pregnant and we knew going in that this would only be a temporary situation (we were moving, she is giving birth – to her 4th child). But it still makes me a little blue to know Jaia won’t be going there anymore. And her new daycare provider seems wonderful, it’s just different, and sometimes change and I don’t see eye to eye.
So, knowing that jaia’s life as she knows it will be going all topsy-turvry anyway, we decided that it was as good a time as any to try her out in a big girl bed (or big girl mattress on the floor for now). And rather than wait until she’s in a room that she’s never seen, in a house she doesn’t know, we tried it out this Saturday night.
After we took the crib apart and put the double mattress on the floor, she ran around like it was Christmas. She could climb up on the bed, jump off, bring books in herself, plop on her back – and she did each one of those things 20 times or more.
And when bedtime came around, she seemed a little confused, as she was suddenly not sleeping in the cosy crib she’d known for the last 17 months, but was a tiny baby on a HUGE bed. But it was nothing a cuddle from mama and daddy couldn’t solve. Within minutes she was off to dreamland. And but for a few squeaks in the middle of the night, she slept peacefully all the way until morning.
The last few nights have been repeats of the the first, but with more playtime between pyjamas and lights out. And though she still wakes a little confused in the middle of the night, she seems to really love it. So basically, I’d say the transition was a roaring success. And thankfully too. We didn’t have much of a back-up plan had it not gone well.
It’s crazy to think that my baby girl is already in a big girl bed. Time is simply flying.
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Auntie Jen - Congrats Fullertons on the move!
Can’t wait to see your new digs.
Jen