This summer will definitely be remembered as a summer of transitions. We welcomed baby Ada to our family, Harper involuntarily “gave up” her pacifier (more on that later), and we moved! We are all settled in to our new home and we couldn’t be happier. As stressful as it was to pack up and move with two toddlers and an infant, it was definitely the right decision for our family.
We only moved 1.5 miles from our old house, but our lifestyle is completely different. Where to begin! First of all, we have grass! We asked Harper at dinner the other night what her favorite part about the new house was, and without hesitation she said “da grass.” It’s true. We have a LOT of it, too. Our house backs up to a farm, so we have a beautiful barn and a huge field adjacent to our back yard. The kids have already spent countless hours running, climbing trees, and getting very messy, just like they should. We find it hard to remember that we still live in Fairfax County and that we are only a few miles from the beltway, since we now have so much nature and privacy!
Speaking of nature, we have already had visits from the hundreds of birds that come to feed on our bird feeder (left by the previous owner), and the kids are learning to identify different birds. We will probably have to get a book soon since we don’t know very many of them, but both Harper and Roman enthusiastically tell us whenever a cardinal, “mommy cardinal,” or blue jay is at the feeder. We also spotted a deer in our yard just the other morning, which might be a problem when we plant a vegetable garden next summer. We also have a farm cat who peruses our yard looking for rodents. Needless to say, it is heavenly!
The other big change for us has been having so much space. We no longer have to shuffle down to the basement for every nap time so that we don’t wake up the nappers, and we can carry on a normal conversation when the kids are asleep (we used to whisper, seriously). We aren’t constantly bumping into furniture, and the kids have much more space to run around without getting hurt. The toys are not constantly under our feet, and I feel a lot less stressed out about the mess since it is more spread out!
The transition to the new house was definitely a challenge, but everyone is doing really well now. Roman had the hardest time, and spent the first few nights screaming and confused. He woke up one night and Portman found him standing in his crib facing the wall saying “Mommy, help!” It was so pathetic! Harper was perfectly happy to move, but not so happy that her pacifiers didn’t move with her. She had plenty of warning that the moving trucks would not be taking her pacifiers, so she never actually asked for them. Instead, she spent the first week or so lying awake at night for hours asking to “have something in my mouth.” She refused to actually ask for a pacifier, but insisted that she needed something in her mouth! She is over it now, but is still taking a lot longer to fall asleep at night. Hopefully we will work out all of the kinks before school starts in September.
At our old house, baby Ada slept in Mommy and Daddy’s bed, but here she has her own room. This took some getting used to for both of us, but she is now sleeping most of the night in her crib by herself. I usually bring her into bed with us for her last feeding around 4 AM, and she spends the rest of the night with me. It all depends on how tired I am and how many times I’ve been up with her already! Sometimes I’m just ready to lie down and fall asleep while she nurses.
We got a slow start on photos, but I finally took a few of the kids in their new digs. We don’t have any indoor shots yet since we spend most of our time outside.
The back of our house with the barn in the background:
