Saturday, November 7, 2009

Week One, Complete!

One week ago today, we woke up for the first time in our new home. It seems like much longer than a week ago that we pulled into our driveway, breathing a sigh of relief that the truck, its contents, and the five of us (Mick, Jack, Shergar, Julie (Mick's mum), and I) made it safely. What a fantastic way to celebrate our fifth (!!!) anniversary.

We had so much help with the move: Trevor, my dad, and Mick had the truck unpacked and returned within an hour and a half. The three guys got all of the furniture in, Mick and Trev unpacked the kitchen, my dad piped natural gas from the basement up to the laundry room to accommodate our new gas dryer (Jack "helped").

My mom and Mick's mum helped wrangle Jack. That is no small job. I think we were all ready to collapse each evening as Jack is an extremely active, mischievous kid. Our first full day in the house was on Halloween. Mick bought tons of candy (while rolling his eyes and telling me "you ladies are like vultures around the Halloween candy at the grocery store"), we decorated the front porch with the small pumpkin Trev & Steph bought for Jack, and Jack buzzed around the house and the porch, excited every time a trick-or-treater arrived (we had tons!).



On Wednesday, I hit my limit. Jack was especially high-maintenance (a bit crabby, really acting like a stinker and getting into EVERYTHING) and I felt as if I would snap. As one of my friends pointed out, the last month was a pretty stressful one and I managed a good deal of the move while handling a kid who was cutting molars and went on a hunger strike. So it was inevitable that a breakdown would come sooner or later. I thought that taking Shergar for a nice long walk in a nearby nature area would help me relax a bit and it did...

...until I walked back in the door to a screaming kid. So, I bit the bullet and asked my parents to take him for the weekend. I just need a few days to regroup, have a nice "staycation" in our new home with Mick, and get some childproofing done. (I've realized that one of the nice things about having lived in such a small house is that it was MUCH easier to keep Jack safe as there were fewer rooms to childproof.)

I thought Mick and I would have a bunch of fun date nights without Jack here... but the last two nights have seen me fast asleep on the couch by 9:30. I think the rest and the few days of uninterupted productivity will make me a much better mom to Jack when I see him again on Monday.

2 comments:

Christine said...

Congrats on the move! Jack is the most adorable bumblebee ever!! Good idea to have a few days sans baby to work on the house. We took Chase to my parents for a week while we packed up our house to move and it was one of the best things we could have done!

Christine said...

P.S. We miss having family close enough by to do that now that we're down in TX! ENJOY IT!!!!