Moving - and Finding Home...

Last weekend we made the official leap over to our new apartment, a few doors north of our previous one. With the help of some friends and cute short people running around underfoot, we hauled all of our big pieces and much of our small stuff up the road (thanks again helpers!!)  We had been moving over bookshelves/books, artwork, ktichen stuff, etc. before this weekend, but now - we really live in our new digs. As in, we sleep, shower, and have most of our life set up over here. And so far, we like it. We have plenty of work left, including continued cleaning and unpacking and moving in both spaces - but, its been pretty fun so far and our new apt is MUCH larger and fits our life really well.

Eva loves her new bedroom and has slept through the night without any trouble in her new big girl bed! woo hoo! She is, however, waking up a little earlier and starting her signature call for us; "Can you hear me?  Hello - can you hear me? I am awake! Let's play!" Her room is now definately a big girl room - no baby stuff, a full dresser full of big kid clothes, dresses hung up in her own closet, her cuddly toys in her own little bed - no dual space use in her room either. The only time I got nostalgic while making this move was when we started packing up her old bedroom, the office turned baby-space that we so carefully painted, hung up pcitures in, built her crib and stocked it with diapers, in. It kind of hit me that we brought her home to this empty room crafted so carefully and then she became part of our home/family after that. When we first brought her home it felt so foreign and like an experiment! Who is that bundle laying in that other room? Now, every move we make, she will make it with us and define a lot of where and how we set up home. Kind of crazy for me to think about.

Overall Eva's done great with all the moving transitions, but she did have one meltdown the day after all the excitement of the move that kind of broke my heart. She had been going back and forth between the two apartments while we moved for about two weeks now, and after her first night over here in the new space, was fighting a cold, a little whiney, and I think unsure of what else was going to change. She started crying at breakfast over nothing, and then said, "I want to go Home!" I said, "Babe, we are home, remember? This is our new home where mom and dad and Eva all live togeher." (For awhile ther was confusion about if we would all stick together for the move, so I thought I'd reinforce that again.) Then she said, "NO, no, no, I want to go HOME." And I said, "Where is home, babe?" To which she tearfully exclaimed, "I don't know where home is! I am just sad."  :(  Here is where I started to cry a little and both Peter and I did some hugging and holding and then played in her new playroom together for awhile. She recovered fine, but the poor girl reminded me that having everything change and feeling unsure about where you belong is a tricky thing. I can't imagine kids who have to move a lot, or never get to be grounded or steady somewhere - like in refugee camps, shelters, or even on base camps or on the road all the time. We all adapt in some ways to any kind of move, but in a fundemental sense, HOME is where we are safe, secure, connected and loved. And what surrounds us physically in whatever space we're in reinforces and helps define that sense of home. As we set up this new space called HOME I am reminded of that - and so grateful for this space that helps shape our home and the people that fill up our sense of home.

Ok, back to unpacking. :)