Gentle breezes of change
My mum and Amelia, 7.30am this morning.
We move into our new place some time in late Feb to early March. While I am not quite counting the days, I am almost every moment thinking “in our new place I will / we will / it will….”. We’ve been living with Mum and Dad for a long time now and it’s going to be exciting to move out of home again. Moving out of home is an amazing feeling and I get to do it again 10 years after I did it the first time, but this time share the adventure with my little girl and Big-P.
I am slightly worried that it may be quite an upheaval for Amelia. She has no memory of life before living here and only knows how it is to have four adoring adults around her, mostly all of the time. She wakes up, visits us in bed and then heads downstairs for stories in bed with Nannan and Pappous. When Big-P heads off to work, her day is spent pottering between the remaining three of us – chatting to Nannan in the kitchen, visiting Pappous in his study and maybe getting to sit on his lap, turn on his radio to Classic FM and draw with his whiteboard markers if she’s lucky. We are both used to lots of company. I am constantly reassured that little children are very adaptable and perhaps I am just projecting my own anxieties, but never-the-less I am plotting and planning ways to ease the transition.
I am gently pitching ideas into her mind already about how our life might be when we move. I am including exciting eventuations such as a brand new fish tank full of fish, who Amelia has decided will all be called Nemo. I have mentioned that we will need to paint her room and that she must think of a colour that she would like to paint it (at this stage she’s settled on blue). I have told her how close we will be to Nannan and Pappous and how we will all visit all the time, and eat dinner at each other’s houses and even sleep over from time to time. Until recently I have always presumed that she doesn’t really comprehend any of these kinds of slightly abstracted conversations, because she is distractedly playing with something else, or changes the topic to some totally unrelated subject within a second, but have discovered that when it comes down to it, she can recall huge amounts of information – she just soaks it all in.
I am sure there will be rough bits a long the way, I am sure it will be fine in the end, I am sure she is a tough cookie and I am sure we will all have a blast, but I am also always concerned with doing the best by her which will be my life long late-night worry session curse.
Amelia is so beautiful!
Don’t worry, she will be fine. She will miss her old ways for a while and then she will learn the new stuff…kind of like starting school…
You’re a great mom, so don’t worry so much.
Your thoughts make me smile & tear up at the same time. Our first granddaughter, just left our nest a week ago. Tessa and her wonderful parents have embarked on their own adventure after being with us for five months. Little Tessa has had a tough time not seeing Poppa and it has been hard for him &me too! But all is as it should be, time for them and we will always be a short trip away. So all is not lost. Good journey Claire, it will be hard, but it will also be okay.
What a sweet story…Thanks for sharing it.
On another note, I just got done reading about the month of softies! What a great idea. I have missed sewing as I have jumped head first into a knitting frenzy these past 6 monthes. The last sewing project i did was last Feb. I am hoping to make the time to participate in this months softy project! Mabye joining sewing, knitting and painting. Oh the ideas are already flowing…. hee hee! This is going to be fun!
Your daughter is so beautiful.
This just shows what a good mommy you are! She is going to be fine with the transition. You’ll be a short driving distance away , right? She will adapt and so will you and your parents but it will be tough at first. I can identify with what you are saying. My mum was just here visiting for 2 weeks and she and dad left today. Kids and I are miserable. But we consider ourselves grateful that we finally live close enough to where they can visit more often. We are 12 hours away from eachother. Yes, 12 hours! Doesn’t sound very close. But before that we were on opposite ends of the USA so seeing eachother was yearly if lucky. Hugs to your sweet little girl. The picture is precious. The move is going to be great!
I’ve got similar thoughts and trepidations about my little girl going to Montessori school at almost 3 years old. She was supposed to start today but with a winter storm brewing we decided to defer til September. She’s still a baby!
We know our ones will be fine but we always want the best for them, don’t we? Thoughtful words. Thanks for sharing!
I’m sure that you’ll have a great time in your new house. I’m one of those persons that thinks that Big Changes are always Good Chances. (I’m married to a No&no change man, so we balance… LoL)
We lived with my inlaws when Katy was little, and our house was being rebuilt. It was briefly difficult making the transition to the new place, but looking back I think it made us appreciate each other all the more. Amelia will adjust, and you will cherish the special time you shared. Its all good.
You are a wonderful mother, preparing her with happy thoughts of moving.And boy, she is a cutie.
(I’ve been reading you for ages, but just coming out of my online shell)May I suggest Nannan and Poppous begin to chat with her on the phone, even if just from the backyard? Then, maybe a week before you leave you can all “get excited” about “chatting on the phone” with the grandparents? It worked wonders for me.
You know, kids like to “own” things… perhaps she’ll enjoy the idea of being in a home of her own? Now she can host dinner parties for softies & grandparents…
She looks like her Nannan. You have all been lucky to have this time as an extended family. Next, you will be lucky enough to start a new adventure.
She will be so excited, she will temporarily “forget”. You are doing a good job getting her excited. Even I am getting excited for you!
What a wonderful photo, Amelia sure is a cutie!
Hi there – I’m a long-time lurker on your site. I had the same fears when we moved house (my daughter is 2 1/2), although I wasn’t living with my parents. We were lucky enough to have a lot of access to the new place, so we went there quite a bit – we showed her her room, talked about where her furniture and her toys would go, and as the move got closer, started talking about the men and the trucks who would take our furniture from “the blue house” to “the new house”.
And .. she was absolutely fine. She knew where her room was, and was happy to see her things there. The next day she woke up and asked to go “home”, so we showed her the old, empty blue house, and that seemed to calm her down.
I agree that kids can absorb an amazing amount of information – I guess we just forgot to tell her that the new house was forever, not just overnight!
Good luck.
Hm… I was nine when I first moved. It was kind of stressful for me, but that’s because my family had no idea what it was doing and we moved in when the house was still having work done on it. I guess the best thing to do is just to try and keep things as organized as possible. Cute picture, by the way. 🙂
I just love the name Amelia. And she is heavenly cute!