We have been here a month and people near and far are constantly asking me about the "transition" and are we "settled". To me, that's a loaded question since we moved into someone else's house. We are as settled as we can be.
Michael has probably adjusted the easiest/best. This is his old home, his old neighborhood, and it is all familiar to him. Not only that, but all he had to do was unpack a few computer boxes, set up a make shift office and voila. He's at work. Transition made.
So far he is really enjoying working at home. In Texas, because of traffic and the expected hours, he was gone from 8 in the morning until 6 at night. That is a lot of time away from the family. Now he gets to roll out of bed and he is at work. Plus, with the hour time change he doesn't have to start until 9 and even then he has beat most of the Texas people to the office. He is able to eat lunch with us, which is nice. Olivia gets to see him much more and she loves it. He stops and takes breaks sometimes. He also pops out and gives me a hand with Olivia if needed (especially since I'm not suppose to lift her). He's also done at 5:30. He walks out of his "office" and we are ready to eat. It's much nicer than waiting for him to walk in the door at 6. It saves money on clothing, food, gas and more! You may have noticed his beard has gotten a little crazy! :) The only negative thing he has to say about it is that sometimes he misses being able to see and talk to his co-workers. He really liked them. Although, he feels he can be more focused and get more done here, which is good.
I did live in Columbus for 8 years before moving to Texas, but on the complete opposite side of town. I don't know this area at all. Doctors offices keep asking me what my local pharmacy is and I have no clue. I can make it to the grocery store, but that is about it. I do know all of the fun kid things to do, but that is about the extent of my adjusting. A lot of things that I loved about Texas just aren't the same here. Also, my daily schedule has been completely turned upside down. I want to get in a routine, but there are multiple hurdles to that. My bags are unpacked. We are signed up for classes and have a full calendar. All the rest will have to come with time. (It probably doesn't help that we did all this while I'm pregnant. Just saying.)
Olivia is actually having a harder time than we expected. Most people here probably can't tell that about her, because they weren't around her before now and she is behaving like a typical toddler. But as her mom, I know. She has always adjusted well to change, so I assumed this time would be no different. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of changes for her. A new house, with a new person around, with new rules (many don'ts where she use to have free reign), a new scary room with a big (queen sized) bed instead of her cozy crib.... I think sometimes we forget that she just turned 2 a few short months ago. She doesn't play with her toys anymore. At all. That makes me sad. Some nights (and naps) work out alright and then some are just an all out battle for HOURS--which is not her. She's been sleep trained since 7 months old and has given us little problems with going to bed since then. So it's a balancing act. We are trying to be understanding and extend grace, but we also don't want her to just all of the sudden get away with everything. She has definitely been acting out and testing our limits. Hopefully she'll be over this stage before Logan arrives!
On a side note, I always said that I'd keep her in her crib until it was necessary to move on. We all know that she isn't a climber, so that would have probably been all the way until Logan needed it months after his birth. There was already a queen size bed in the room she is staying in. We were anticipating our stuff taking longer to get here, so we got a rail for it. Once we got here, we decided to skip putting the crib up in exchange for some extra play space for her. I'm not sure that was a good idea. First of all, she doesn't even use the play space. Second, she is having a harder time adjusting to the big bed. I'm not sure it's the actual bed that is a problem. It's probably all of the changes mixed in and then having a big bed in a strange room is scary. We have done what we could. We bought one of those turtles that put the stars and moon up on the ceiling. She has about 20 to 30 stuffed animals in the bed. Literally. We have pillows under the blankets on all sides except for where the rail is. One to make it feel smaller, but also for barriers. We let her sleep with a book if it makes her feel better. Even still, she is not sold. Unfortunately, I think it's too late to go back to the crib. So we will keep on trying to help her adjust.
So that pretty much sums it up. We are here. We are unpacked. We are staying busy. We are as "settled" as we can be for now. It's definitely a much bigger learning curve than I was anticipating, though.
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