Moving In

What a whirlwind of several days! I have taken few photos because life has just been too zany for me to keep track of the camera's location and memorialize the cute moments.

Moving day was long and hard, even with the aid of five professional movers and my mother's helper. Despite the moving company coming to our apartment to view our belongings and being told of our storage unit packed to the brim, it underestimated the staff and truck we would need. The morning began with three men and one truck and ended with a total of five men and three trucks! My mother's helper was invaluable while she was here most of the day and the juggling got a lot more difficult when she went home several hours before the movers were done.

Poor John has been so excited by all this commotion. It took him nearly the whole 11 days in California to switch to West Coast time. We had been home not quite two weeks before the move and he was almost switched back to East Coast time, but his napping routine was (is) still chaotic. Then with the move, he has been far too excited by the commotion, the people, the new home, the boxes, and the many places to run for sleeping or eating. When he's finally so exhausted he's about to drop, then he realizes that he's starving because he has rejected my 15 pleadings to eat something. That first night in the new home, we were oh-so tired, but John woke up at 3:30 a.m. asking for food and could no longer be convinced otherwise. I believe that he was really very hungry! By 4:00 a.m., I realized I could pick my poison: continue to stay awake with a crying toddler or stay awake in the kitchen getting him a snack. I chose the latter, but then John was so excited by seeing the cat in the middle of the night (see photo), that it took him an hour to eat one graham cracker square. Was Mama happy? You can guess . . .
For now, Chris' office is in an upstairs bonus room off of the kitchen. It has no door, unfortunately, so we put a baby gate there to keep John from bugging Daddy while he is working. This is a painful concept, so here John is trying to climb up the outside of the stairs to get to Daddy:
Forty-eight hours after we moved in, we welcomed six overnight guests! Some of Chris' family were passing through Charlotte on their way home from a wedding. They broke up the one-and-a-half-day drive by spending the night at our house, enjoying a couple of meals with us, and helping us move furniture around. John absolutely loved playing with his two girl cousins and one boy cousin. Playing early-morning ball in the backyard with cousin Ryan, John still in pajamas:

Ryan and Cameron helping John color:
This morning was our first trash day in the new home, which is big excitement for John. Vroom vroom! Long after the garbage truck came and went, John remained peering out the front door, calling him back:

We're surrounded by boxes and it is a zoo around here, but we sure do enjoy our new home and are having fun getting established here. We've already been honored to have one neighbor bring us chilled champagne and another neighbor bring us homemade brownies!