Moving with a toddler...

Garet and I talked about how we were going to handle moving with Colin.  We knew that it was going to be crazy because: 1. it was happening so fast,  2. we had a lot going on other than moving and, 3. we had a 20 month old. 

We decided that we were going to leave out as much as possible of Colin's things and we were going to keep with his schedule as much as we could.  During the month before the move, we packed up most of the house.  The week of the move, we really got down to business and packed everything except what we needed for that week.  In Colin's room, we left almost everything "normal".  I took down all the pictures and shelves from the walls - and Colin noticed: "uh oh," he would say and point to the wall. 

(yes he has food on his chin)
Since Colin's dresser isn't too heavy, we just left his clothes inside.  And since he has an awesome toybox, we left all his toys in his room too.  We were able to just throw the toys inside and move the whole thing.  Downstairs, since I had the cubes, we just left all his toys out there too.

On moving day, Colin woke up in his room.  Then when my parents got there, mom took Colin and they played in the backyard.  While he was outside, we got all his things out of his room and packed on the truck.  We had heard that some kids can be a little traumatized by seeing their furniture being disassembled and their rooms cleaned out.  We also got Garet's office completely cleared out.  I put a few of Colin's toys in the office, so when Colin and my mom came in from playing outside, he had a "new" playroom.  Colin never went back into his room.

We made the move here during Colin's nap.  So he slept almost the whole drive here.  The first night in this house, Colin slept in a pretty much empty room, in his pack'n'play.  He is really awesome about sleeping in new places, so it was no biggie for him to sleep that night.  The next day, we unpacked the truck and by Colin's nap time (1:00) I had his furniture and all of his stuff in his new room. 

He amazes me daily, and he has handled his move like a champ!  The first couple nights in his new room, he would talk himself to sleep longer than usual... but he still got himself to sleep.  With how we like to move, it's good that he did so well =)