Last Friday was our last day in New England. We are so sad to leave the area, but we are so happy to be back near our families in Northern Virginia. The packing, moving and selling of our home, however, was extra exhausting with our baby girl thrown in the mix.
As a military family, we have moved quite a bit--four times in seven years, but nothing compares to moving with a toddler (unless you multiply that by two or three I imagine).
Trying to work around her nap schedule--that was frequently interrupted by unavoidable things like loud packers or last-minute doctor appointments--created a very limited amount of time that I could sort through paperwork and attic boxes or get things cleaned.
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Messing with my 14-month-old's sleep schedule also created a very early riser out of her. She normally wakes up relatively early between 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m., but this last week it's been more like 4:30 a.m. -- which is not a time of the morning I suggest anyone wake up.
But I think once we are all settled into our new home she will relax and fall back into her routine with a little help (read: manipulation) on my part.
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Despite my lack of energy, we got our house cleaned, everything packed and even all our paperwork for the sale of our house done just in the nick of time.
One of our stumbling blocks was honestly procrastinating till the last week to get things like Power of Attorney paperwork for our real estate agent notarized so she could sell our house for us. Thank goodness the is a public notary and was right down the road from our house (and only costs $2).
We also had about five last minute runs to the 24 hour on Main Street for all kinds of things like screwdrivers (because all of ours were packed and we forgot to take off the child gate on the stairs), baby Benadryl (to sedate the cat a little for our 10 hour car ride), and paper towels, because you can't imagine how many you go through when moving with a toddler. All I can say is "Thank You" to CVS for being open 24 hours.
I was also able to recycle all of my plastic garbage and shopping bags at Market Basket before leaving as they have a bin in the front to collect plastic bags. We donated a bunch of clothing and other good condition items like purses to the Salvation Army and took off early Friday morning.
I shed a tear to leave Wilmington and the entire New England area, especially my first home where we took home our baby girl from the hospital downtown.
We will miss you all and wish you all the best of luck. I will continue to write mommy columns online at Momma-Jamma.blogspot.com if anyone wants to continue reading about my (mis)adventures as a new mom.
