1

The final countdown to moving has begun!

Tomorrow the truck comes and we move into our (hopefully) forever home.

Then I get to enjoy my pretty kitchen! I'm so I'm so pumped for counter space y'all!

2

My goal has been to pack a box or two everyday. In reality, I go through off packing days and days when I pack up 5 boxes. There still feels like an infinite list of packing and cleaning tasks to work through!

3

With our last move, we were spending a good week in hotels and we had professional packers come in and pack and load the whole apartment in two days. 

This time around, we are largely packing ourselves and only moving locally. That means we are spending many many more days living among boxes than we did in any of our previous moves.

And I hate it. It stresses me out to feel like my environment is NEVER put to rights or clean.

4

Solution: leave the house strategically! 

We have been making good use of our Y membership. Breaking up our time in cardboard box land. The kids get essentially a Park day (they have an outside play structure) with more kids than we can find at the park before schools let out, and I get a workout. Lots of win!
Felicity has become the official living baby doll of the kids spot. When I come to pick her up, she’s often sitting in a bumbo chair surrounded by adoring preschoolers all wanting to show her a toy and get her to laugh.

My favorite picture I've taken of Felicity sitting up!
She's a big fan of the "sit and put one thing into another thing" game.

5

Children’s adoration has been a blessing during our packing time too!
While it’s always a wiggly squirmy hour, I don’t feel bad about it when it’s an hour specifically for small children in the adoration chapel.

But babies do like to find the best/worst timing to develop new skills.
This week little Felicity has learned how to roar. Like a lion. She waited to display this new skill until we were praying a decade of the rosary during adoration, and the squirming had come down to a minimum.
At first I was mortified thinking it was my bigger kids who know better. Then I see some of the big kids just about to fall over in silent laughter, and I realize the huge sound is going from the little baby tripod sitting on the floor next to me.
She was quite pleased with herself.

6

Things I have learned about my kids in this time of packing:

- John will carefully fold and pack clothes for HOURS. Happily and precisely.
- Therese is now capable of hauling built dish pack size boxes up the stairs from the basement.
- Felicity will fall asleep on my back, if I wear her long enough, despite herself. Those generations of nomadic people genes kick in at good times!

7

My parents and one of my sisters fly in today to help with the move!
We have always lived multiple states away from immediate family, so getting to go through a big life change with immediate family present hasn’t happened since our wedding day.

Linking up with This Ain't the Lyceum for 7 Quick Takes.
Who else is moving right now/soon? Tell me all your cute kid stories because they make this process much more fun!

Moving Halfway Across the Country with Young Kids

Linking up with This Ain't the Lyceum for 7 Quick Takes!

This past week we moved from Berkeley, CA to St. Louis Park, MN. It's been a saga. I would not claim moving with kids is easy, but there are some things we did with this move that made the process easier.

1

Find a way to make baths happen everyday

During the moving process there is so much upheaval. The packing and moving makes living spaces very dusty, and being outside so much meant by the end of the day there was a decent amount of dirt, dust, sand, sunscreen, and who-knows-what on these kids. 

My kids are very used to bath time starting the train to sleepy time. If I can just get them in a tub at the end of the day, nighttime goes so much better for everyone!

2

Bring the white noise machine

We're used to sleeping with white noise machines in each bedroom, and I was very grateful for that during the move. Having that consist sound for sleep was great for thin walled hotel rooms and even for getting used to the sounds of our new home.

3

Explore!

Much of the time it only made sense for one of us to be at the apartment/house and the other to be the kid wrangler. The best mode of kid wrangler is out of the house, and if you need to be out of the house might as well do fun stuff!

I became kid wrangler so the kids and I had adventures! Everywhere! We hiked the trail next to the hotel, made a whole ceremony out of getting free snacks from the hotel lounge, tried out our new library, 

4

Plan one fun meal each day

We were traveling, in different hotels, and then essentially camping in our new house for over a week (and counting).  We had bagels with cream cheese and bananas for breakfast, and sandwiches for lunch, most days. We requested a fridge and microwave in hotels which greatly broadened our meal options for non-restaurant meals.We liked to pick either lunch or dinner to be the fun dinner out. It was a great way to stay on budget. Honestly, my littles could only handle one restaurant meal each day from a good behavior stand point alone.

5

Don't Over Pack

I know this is so hard when traveling with little people, especially when you cannot be exactly sure when that moving van will show up at your new place, but traveling with only as much as you need saves so much headache. Especially because we were flying, I wanted to keep our number of bags, and the weight of those bags, on the lower side.

My strategy has been little kids all share one brown duffel bag which they pack under mom supervision. We generally bring enough clothes for five days at a time. We always always always pack swimsuits, fleece jackets, church clothes just to be prepared.
Each kid gets a kitchen size trash bag labeled with their name put into the duffel. Socks, underwear, swim suits all go in a gallon sized ziplock with their name as well.
All kid toiletries go in Mom or Dad's bag since that helps streamline the set up process when we arrive out destination. 

6

Preparing the Kids for Moving

We prepared the kids for moving for months. They saw pictures of the new house, we researched local parks, parishes, and activity options so we could talk in more detail about what would be around in their new neighborhood. We read probably every picture book about moving our local library had in their catalog. Our favorites were The Berenstain Bears Moving Day and Moving by Fred Rodgers (aka. Mister Rodgers!).

We were also very honest about the process of moving. We each encouraged the kids to ask questions and made sure not to sugarcoat things. We probably will not be back in our old town for a long time so these goodbyes will very likely be the last in person visit for most of their little friends. Talking about how they met the friends they have now is useful for helping kids picture how they might make new friends in their new neighborhood. Because they have had success at this friend thing before!

7

Prepare Yourself

Little kids will generally mirror the attitude and perspective of the adults. If YOU are not happy about moving, are scared or unsure if this is a good idea, the kids will probably follow your lead. The best prep for getting through the moving process is to get yourself prepared! Figure out what you need to feel secure in the decision to move and what you will need set up in your new home first off.

For me, picking a parish is huge. I use my parish as home base for finding community and if I can find a solid parish I have a lot more confidence that connections will happen.

Have you ever moved with little kids? What are your moving tips?