Kids Adjust More Easily Than Dogs (Moving Part 2)

For many weeks leading up to our move I became increasingly nervous about how Aria would make the transition.  In my mind, the move would be very frightening to her.  She's too young to understand the concept by explaining it to her so I wasn't sure how to make her comfortable in our new house.  I spent many nights struggling to fall asleep and waking up early in the morning with thoughts of how awful it would be for Aria.

Yeah right.  Good thing I spent all that time worrying.

Aria has done fantastic!  I think it mostly just goes to show how resilient kids are, but there are a few other factors that helped.  We took possession of our new house 4 days before we actually moved in and we spent time there each of those for days painting, cleaning, and moving small loads.  So, Aria was used to the place.  On the day we did move for good, we set up Aria's room first, complete with things on the wall, to give her some sort of normal.  All of her toys, books, stuffed animals, and most importantly her mom and dad were at the new house, so what was there to miss about the old one?  The first nap in the new house involved a lot of crying and wasn't much of a nap, but after that it has been smooth sailing.  She wanders around like she owns the place, already knows where everything is, and is sleeping better than she did at our old house! 

On our new deck!  Like I said..as if she owns the place!

I think I put too much of my own sentimental connections on her when I was so fearful of the transition.  I was going to miss how she watched out the window when Dada left for work.  I can remember all the in vitro shots in her room and the first night we brought her home.  Those aren't her memories.  What matters to her is that the people who love her are there to take care of her and provide a safe environment for her to be curious and grow and learn.  It's not the house that makes the home.

On the other hand, our poor dog, who hates it when we move furniture to vacuum, really didn't know what was going on.  The first day we brought Augie over to the new place she ran around and sniffed everything out, enjoyed chasing the ball off the deck and thought it was great.  But when it came time to move furniture and boxes and mess things all up, boy that freaked her out!  And, when it was time to sleep at the new place, she was very confused and didn't even join us on our bed like she normally does.  This dog who usually eats her food in 23.4 seconds would leave it for hours for the first few days.  It is the same to her, as long as her people are here to care for her, she is mostly okay, but she just has been a little off.  I really wonder what she does when we are gone and she has free reign in the house.  Augie has finally returned to normal and I think we're all settled!  I'm just glad it was the dog and not the daughter who took so long be happy in our new place! 

Augie certainly enjoys the deck, too!