I spent a good portion of this week clearing out unwanted items from closets and packing for our upcoming move. I'm finding the most difficult task in packing up a house with two little helpers is all those dusty items tucked away in the depths of the closet are brand new treasures to them. We have spent a lot of time reminiscing over old baby clothes, memorabilia and pictures from my childhood, and my favorite, learning about the purpose of a house phone. I forgot we even had one boxed up, but it didn't take long for Lyla and Max to discover it and start asking questions. I finally gave up trying to keep it in the donation pile, which is fine because the conversations they have been coming up with are hilarious. Definitely worth keeping for the entertainment value alone. It's funny to me how fascinated they are by the idea of having a house phone, only since it was such a common item when I was growing up. I know times change, but those realizations always come as a shocker to me. And it took a few tries as I attempted to explain the concept to Lyla that a house phone does not have texting capabilities. Funny girl.
Kirk helped me over the weekend move all the boxes I packed throughout the week out to the garage. The mound it created made the feeling of moving set in and, of course, I was overwhelmed by mixed emotions. Mostly "aww" and "ugh." In some ways I feel bad we are leaving our house, we have made so many memories here. And I just know the house is going to miss us as much as we will miss it, because houses have feelings now. Then I also started to remember the exhaustion caused by moving. I felt like we had such a productive weekend, but in reality we have barely made a dent in packing the bulk of our house. It's crazy, and a bit sickening, how much unnecessary stuff we can acquire. I've enjoyed saying goodbye to a lot of crap I forgot we even owned, but there is still so much. Moving is no joke. I thought I was being eager by starting to pack a month early, but now I'm glad I did.
We spent Saturday at Jeremy and Charli's to give their new home a BBQ test run. The weather was beautiful and we had so much fun. They just purchased a golf cart and the kids really enjoyed cruising all around the property. They all took turns driving...well, steering for Lyla and Max since their legs can't reach the peddles. But that's giving them something to look forward to. They both fell asleep on our way back home, as they were repeating over and over again about how much fun they had. I think the golf cart was a wise aunt and uncle investment.
Lyla woke up the second we pulled into the garage because she is Lyla, but Max was out like a light and I moved him to his bedroom. The only reason I mention this is because it was 5pm when we left the Stout's and Max slept until 8am the following day. That is 15 hours of sleep! After we decided not to wake Max from his slumber, I volunteered to take the super early shift when we predicted he would wake up in the wee hours of the morning. I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to continue snoozing myself until 8am the next morning.
During Max's ultimate nap marathon, we had a really enjoyable evening with Lyla. She is getting so big and smart. I'm wondering what happened to my baby. I realized Kirk and I hardly ever get to spend individual time with our kids together. The one on one time we get is always separate, since someone has to take care of the other one. That was confusing to type, but anyway, it was fun. It reminded me of what it used to be like when it was just the three of us. And it was a bit of an eye opener of how much of our time gets divided when we are spreading it between two kiddos. However, I actually missed Max and his silliness by morning. I was happy to be back to all four of us squished in bed for snuggles by morning.
Now I'm wondering what it's like to have Max as an only child for a few hours. I'm not sure Kirk and I have ever experienced that together. I'm always trying to schedule one on one dates, but now the party of three will add another element to the balance sheet I'm always tallying in my head. Although four is my favorite, it's kind of fun experiencing other dynamics. I guess I'll have to put Lyla to bed early one night to make that work. Haha! Yeah right!
Max woke up in the best mood ever and I swear he grew overnight. Perhaps it was because I hadn't seen him in 15 hours, but he seemed to be acting and looking older. The mind is tricky like that. He was so hilarious all day long and we kept spying on him playing with his superheroes. His imagination has really blossomed lately, including different voice variations for his action figures and sound effects. I've noticed his style of play is slowly starting to take a different direction than Lyla's. She typically enjoys role playing, following a story line, and structure, whereas Max tends to be more of an aggressive, no boundaries, action seeker. They both enjoy all of these types of play depending on mood and/or time of day, I'm just referencing my recent observations to their preference here.
I hope their preference in playing isn't foreshadowing growing distant in the future, because in a perfect world they will stay best friends forever. They continue to play together really well most days, but the most recent example of this change I can think of is related to a game of Barbies. We had a couple of Barbies in the doll house baking up a batch of cookies. We were following a pretty strict plot, directed by the boss herself and she seemed pleased with how the session of Barbies was going. Max was included, but as he grew bored with each detailed instruction, he decided it would be more fun to make his character crash into all the furniture. I tried to alter the story line by telling Lyla she fed her guest too many cookies and he was clearly not in his right mind, but she wasn't about it. Max found the entire situation hilarious, and it was hard not to laugh myself.
In some ways it makes me proud that Max is finally taking a stand against Lyla. After all, it doesn't have to be her way all the time. Actually, what am I saying --- I've never let my brother have it his way a day in his life.
Parenting comes with a lot of "do as I say, not as I do" moments. ;)
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