Settling In

Buying a house was not only a major milestone for us but it was a pretty big move.  We moved outside of the city to a small town about 30-35 minutes from the apartment we were living in.  It's an adjustment getting used to being out of the city in a few ways.

First, errands take much longer due to drive time-- the closest grocery store is at least 15 minutes as opposed to the 3 minute drive we were used to.  There are several options for shopping in all directions so it's just 15-20 minutes pending which direction you want to go.  I have found that when I go into town, I just have to take care of everything-- knock out all the errands at once.  The down side is that usually leads to fussy, over tired kids after going in and out of several places, but the upside is that we have more time at home to just hang out and play.

It takes Daniel at least 20 minutes to get to work-- sure it stinks to have the extra drive and have to leave earlier, but he also appreciates not living where he's working and being able to leave work at work. It's also 20-25 minutes to the gym, and he's a gym addict, so when his gym trips used to be there and back in an hour/hour and a half, they're now 2-3 hours.

So aside from the time and drive, there's also the adjustment to the space.  We live in the country which means next to no street lights, so at night it gets dark, REAL dark!  At the apartment even with blinds and curtains on the windows some street lights still shone through-- Leeland was pretty startled the first night here when we put him to bed, cut out his lights and he couldn't see a foot in front of his face.  Along those same lines, we don't hear ambulance, police and fire, and really we live on a dead end so there isn't much traffic heard other than our neighbors.

Leeland also had a bit of an adjustment to calling a new place "home."  That was something I didn't anticipate and broke my heart. When we moved, he and Hayden stayed with family and that evening we went to pick them up and brought them to the new house.  We moved everything to the new house the same day and spent the night here that evening.  I made a point to try and have his room all set up so he could sleep in his own bed that night and I just assumed he would see all his stuff and be fine.  That wasn't the case-- that night when we laid him down, we went through the routine of singing, reading etc.  and when we were leaving his room he began to cry and kept saying over and over "I ready to go!"  I don't think he could articulate what he was wanting, but I understood him.... this wasn't his home and he was ready to go home.  The 2nd night we went through the same thing.  It took lots of me explaining over and over-- "This is our new home. We brought all of your toys, your big boy bed...."  "You have a new room.... look at your nice new room!" etc. etc.  After a few days he finally had it!  And I even went back to the apartment complex a couple times this past week to check the mailbox and Leeland didn't pitch a fit or call it home.  

It's been more of an adjustment than I was anticipating honestly-- I grew up in a small town not far from here, I moved out when I was 18 though and had lived in the city since then, I guess it just doesn't take long to get used to certain conveniences of the city. (Still LOVE the place though and am enjoying the memories, and just can't get over watching Leeland run around the place-- he has the space now! Run on little man, run on!)