The Other Side

I'm back!

We moved house.

At times it seemed like we had undertaken an almost impossible task but here we are, on the other side.

(Toby's new trains, waiting for him in his new bedroom)

(Unpacking boxes/Peekaboo!)

(The boys' first bath in the new bath!)

We picked up the keys, the evening of Thursday 31st and we had to hand back the keys to the old house on Saturday the 9th. So we had a cross-over period to get everything moved in here, and then clean the old house up.  Not a big enough cross-over period it turns out, as everything is about 8 x slower and more difficult when you have a toddler and a baby, but one of Chris's sisters came to stay with us for a week, and with her help, and the help of a few others, we did the best we could.

I don't think we'll be getting our full deposit back on the old place, and that sucks. I mean, really sucks, as we could really put that money to good use, but at this point in time i am just glad that the whole process is OVER. FINITO. DONE AND DUSTED.

I am sitting in a huge living-dining room, the only cardboard box in sight is one that has been decorated with tissue paper and fashioned into a spaceship/rocket, the boys are asleep upstairs, the dog is asleep at my feet. I'm not exactly sure where the cat is, and Chris is out at work, so it's not exactly the fireside scene of family tranquility but almost.

If you open the door to the 3rd bedroom (what will, at some point, become Rudy's room) the entire illusion of calm togetherness will be completely shattered as you'll be met with dismantled bits of wardrobe and bed and boxes and binbags and general chaos.  But then, why would you do a thing like that anyway?! ;)

I guess what i'm trying to say is that we're getting there.  "There" being that place you reach, usually a good few months after moving where your house looks like something resembling a normal home, and everything has a 'place' (ish).

Both boys seem to have adjusted really well.  Not to say we haven't had some bad times, it's been a lot for us all to cope with but now that things are settling down they both seem really happy here, i guess it wasn't just Chris and i who were feeling stifled with the lack of space at the old house.

Rudy is crawling non-stop and he's FAST now we have wooden floors.  Toby loves zooming up and down the living room/dining room, making full use of the space on his ride-on Thomas train/Lightning Mc Queen scooter!  Rudy can also now pull himself up to standing using furniture/boxes/people. Mainly he uses the sofa...

(the cat's really pleased about it, can't you tell?!)

In other news, i went back to work.  Tuesday night was my first shift back, but i've taken some annual leave this week, so that's me done again now until next week! Which is quite nice, as it's easing us all in  gently.  It went fine for me, but Chris had his hands full with Rudy (who was understandably pissed that not only had i left whilst he was sleeping, but i'd gone and taken my boobs with me! How rude!) and then at some point Rudy's crying woke Toby, so they all ended up wide-awake in our bed together at 3am! I know it will all work out in the long run though, we just have to figure it out as we're going along.  I'm only going to be doing 2 nights a week so i don't think we'll need to make any massive adjustments.

I'm going to end with what has to be one of my most favourite moving photos ever.  It was taken quite early on in the packing process (Toby still has all his hair!) but i just love how well it's captured the moment.  Makes me feel all gooey inside :)