The past week has been spent adjusting. (And painting walls and installing lights and putting things up and pulling things down and ripping tape off of boxes that appear to be multiplying like mogwais while we sleep and trying to find somewhere, anywhere, that will feed us Thai food and oh right, my final book edit is due on Friday, nbd…but mostly adjusting.)
What’s presented an interesting challenge – and one that I didn’t expect – is that both Indy and Goldie have changed a lot almost overnight (or at least that’s how it feels), and so while we figure out all the things you have to figure out when you move to a new place, we’re also having to figure out how to adjust to our kids’ newfound needs. Goldie used to sleep what felt like all day long; suddenly she’s dropped down to one nap, with maybe a little bonus rest in the early evening. She moves now. A lot. Basically, she’s like tiny, extremely cute and very awake lightning.
With Indy, it’s more of a situational shift; his school out here doesn’t start for another couple of weeks, and even when school does start, we don’t have the regular routine set up out here that we had back at home, with lessons on this day and playdates on that day and…you know, stuff to do.
The thing about kids is that life is WAY easier when you have stuff to do.
For the longest time now, I’ve gotten away without having a for-real schedule. Our days go something like this: Indy goes to school; Goldie sleeps; I get my work done; all three of us go do something or other in the afternoon; we make dinner; I work some more after they go to bed. But here we don’t have those something-or-others to do yet, and there’s no school yet, and apparently there’s no sleep anymore, and so something had to change.
You guys, I never knew. I NEVER KNEW.
How did I not know this?
Whatever, I know it now – and let me tell you: this whiteboard scheduling thing is a freaking LIFESAVER. I don’t know why it makes a world of difference to have an hour-by-hour plan physically written down, but it makes your day about ten thousand times smoother and more productive. (Example: when my son doesn’t feel like napping I walk him over to the whiteboard and point to the time, and shrug my shoulders: “Look, the schedule says you have to rest.” If the schedule says so, it must be true. And –> nap.) It helps me, but even more, it seems to help them, giving them a much-needed dose of consistency in what has pretty obviously been a time of massive upheaval.
P.S. Want to see yesterday’s art project? We made a pool surrounded by flowers, and a rabbit. (Try not to be jealous of my rabbit-drawing skills.)
