May...weeks 3 and 4

Week 3: Crazy packing begins-

May continued with a lot of packing and organizing. It's not really hard to pack and move in 3 weeks when you are in an apartment, but I like to make it harder by insisting that we organize and label everything, to make it easier on myself and everyone helping us move. I'll brag a little by saying that all of our moves have gone off without a hitch, and I don't think we have lost anything yet :). That being said, it was a lot of late nights of organizing. The night pictured below went a little too late when we were organizing kids games. I pick up a lot of games at garage sales, and I don't always know that they have the right pieces (for a quarter would you pass it up?) so we went through all of them to make sure they were complete before packing them away. Alex really liked the Horton Hears a Who game!

Olivia got to practice and perfect her climbing on our box tower. We made sure it was all fairly steady, and that she couldn't ruin anything, and pretty much just let her at it. It made for a few hours of entertainment, which is always helpful! In these pictures she is discovering an open box on top of the pile (I didn't want to seal electronics until I was sure we had everything) and proceeding to empty the entire box. I loved watching her evaluate everything, and didn't really mind the mess because it took her a lot longer to create than me to pick up. She found an old camera and took a lot of pictures of herself, before moving on to the instruction manuals. She now knows how to use all of our appliances a lot better than we do :)

This climbing wall in our house led to a lot of adventuring during the weeks leading up to our move. Some of it was harmless, but I was surprised a few times by her agility (pulling herself up onto the washing machine) and her creativity (climbing onto the toy table to get at a pacifier on the counter). She did learn to be cautious, however, because I'm a little slow at helping her down from a tight spot. I figure if she gets herself up there, she can figure out her own way down!

This is just a picture that we sent to Alex at work when Olivia was practicing drawing her O's and I's. She will tell you which is which, though I'm having a harder time figuring it out! I was glad for the distraction that coloring provided, because she hadn't been interested in it before, and I was running out of ideas to keep her busy while I packed. Alex had a crazy busy month at work, and was often gone all of her awake hours, so it was good for her to have some activities that she could just do on her own.

On Saturday the 19th, Alex's game got rained out! (Don't ask me why based on these pictures, but it was). I should have taken the opportunity to let Alex take Olivia and I catch up on sleep, or we all work together to get a lot of the house ready to move, but instead we headed to the zoo for one last trip. This was a really fun trip because Olivia was so interested in finding each of the animals. Even the ones sleeping or in their little homes, she would walk right up, say 'night night', 'bye' then walk away.

You can't see the giraffe in this picture, but she was mesmerized by two giraffes (a big and a little) for quite a while. The giraffes are at the very end of the zoo circle, and she was really tired, but she just wanted to watch them walk around forever.

Week 4: moving week, Alex gone-

The week that we actually moved was one of the longest, craziest weeks of my life. Alex was gone the entire week on a work trip, and we had a lot to do. There really wasn't a lot we could do before he left because we use everything in our house, so I got to pack the kitchen, clothes, bathrooms, and again, the KITCHEN, by myself. I really wanted to be ready by the time our moving help arrived, but I wasn't, and they were quite forgiving.

Olivia was also just getting over ANOTHER double ear infection (I think the one from April never really cleared up) and was a little distraught by the moving process. As we started packing away toys and things that she uses every day, she got more attached to my hip and less independent. I totally expected this, and know that it's completely normal, but it didn't make my week any easier.

It was still important for us to get out of the house, as our little two-bedroom place gets very boring after a while, so on Tuesday Olivia and I headed to the park. I decided to try pigtails, and was amazed at how big she looked! It definitely takes away the baby look...both a good and bad thing. She looked adorable, so we had to do a mini photo shoot of course :)

On Wednesday we had our last play date with our dear friends the Chapmans. Ellie (2nd picture) is such a fun friend, and we had a blast at a local splash park. It was a little cold for the water, and Olivia wasn't so sure about it spraying out of the ground, but the park was fun all by itself, and I enjoyed the chatting time :).

Thursday was my meltdown day. I just couldn't keep up with Olivia's messes, and had a HUGE list of little things that I needed to accomplish, Alex's parents were coming to help with moving weekend the next day, and I really planned to have the kitchen mostly packed by the time they arrived. We weren't moving until Sunday, but I like to put up an organized front. Needless to say, that didn't happen. I was lucky to have the clothes washed and packed and the bathrooms packed up. Then Thursday after nap, we went to the same splash park again to enjoy a little play time. It was a blast, but I mistakingly didn't bring Olivia's suit (the day before she wanted nothing to do with the water) so she was pretty soaked by the end of it.

I'm not sure if it was the stress of moving or a little stomach bug, but Thursday night was an adventure. I was 28 weeks pregnant, so starting to have less energy again, and Olivia was sick. Like blowout diapers and throwing up sick. All night. I used the last of the laundry soap the day before (trying not to move any), so I had to take her in pajamas WAY after bedtime to the drugstore close to us, and spent a lot of the night switching laundry. We went through 3 sheets and 8 blankets for her, plus countless pajama sets that night. This was especially hard because all the clothes and blankets were packed for the move except for what we needed that weekend...

I could go on and on, but let's just say I was a wreck on Friday morning when I got a text from Alex's parents saying they were about 20 minutes away. I was so relieved! I was also embarrassed and frustrated with myself for having so much left to do, but I knew they would get there and help and everything would be ok. My parents were coming with the moving truck on Sunday, and we were finally going to be going home with family. Mostly I think I was just missing my husband, and I know Olivia was missing her daddy. We were so glad to have family coming!

I'm pretty sure we played and packed in the morning, then I took a nap with Olivia in the afternoon. I shouldn't have, there was a lot to do, but I did anyway. After nap we had Olivia's last swim lesson (which we almost forgot about...). By this time she was a pro at floating on her back and going under water, and totally loving the water.

Whew! I seriously get tired just thinking about this week. But next up, MOVING! and a short visit with Alex, which was a great emotional pick me up for me.