As if things weren’t already crazy enough around here, what with the book I have to finish in a week and the fertility drugs and the new youtube channel, we also had to move. Luckily it’s only a couple of miles away so we could get by doing most of it in the van and unpacking as we went. No weeks of living in and out of boxes, no hunting down the boxes, no living without things until the day the truck came and then living without anything until it came back and hoping everything came with it. As moves go this one was about as simple as it could get. But as timing goes, it was just about the worst.
We got pushed into it though and it couldn’t be helped. We have been having landlord troubles the whole time we lived here, but we hoped that if we kept our heads down, paid our rent, ignored the occasional crazy email and didn’t ask for anything, then we could get by. But that proved untenable. Yadda yadda yadda, don’t want to get too far into it for many reasons but mainly because I don’t want my blog to show up in yet another deposition if she decides to be as awful as she possibly can be, it was time to go. Now.
This is going to be a great change for us. The internet brought me yet more bounty as it led me to a fabulous house on Craigslist, that came with landlords as ready made friends. The house ended up being owned by a friend I made at the yarn shop a couple years ago, whose husband runs a company remodeling kitchens. There’s a garden in the back with basil and tomatoes, and crown molding on every surface. I’ll show you around tomorrow.
Since we had to take the crib apart in the move, we decided to face the fact that our baby is now a preschooler and we were long past time to let him have a big boy bed. We bought a crib that would convert to a day bed, but until very recently Atti still would have fallen out of it, so we left things alone, content to milk those baby years as long as possible. Now my heart is breaking. Don’t these kids know how much it hurts us when they grow?
Being able to get out of chairs and down off beds has been a huge milestone for Atti. He’s climbing up a few stairs at at time, he’s wiggling out of wherever I put him, and I no longer have to rush to catch him when he rolls off my bed. Now he gets a focused look on his face like a rock climber scaling a particularly treacherous cliff, and lowers himself to the ground. Sometimes his landings aren’t so graceful. Sometimes I have to come behind him and remind him to bend his knees, but he’s strong enough now that he can do it without getting hurt. Which is thrilling, but like every time your child hits a milestone, so bittersweet. It is both a relief and a heartbreak to watch your children develop and need you less and less.
When I had my baby shower – all held after Atti was born since nobody throws a baby shower in the seventh month – one of my Mother-in-laws friends bought me a little baby outfit and a pair of overalls in 2T. I remember looking at the preemie clothes and those overalls and thinking to myself, “He’ll never get that big!”
But they do. Today I’m feeling sentimental about leaving his crib behind, tomorrow I’ll be watching him drive and thinking back to how small he looked in his first big boy bed.
