Moving

With this being our 3rd move in 15 months, I felt a bit like a pro. Okay, maybe not pro, I did still end up with a few "random" boxes. You know the ones, they have the junk drawer items, things found after the furniture was moved, your husband's high school football helmet that only the kids play with. I was promised though that this will be the last move for several years. And frankly I don't mind losing a bit of my expertise in this field. However I have learned some awesome tips of moving with small children along the way.

At one of my first doctor's appointments while pregnant with JoJo(#3) I was flipping through a parenting magazine. Usually I prefer the home decorating ones, but the cover caught my eye. And having my husband already living and working in the city that we were moving to I would take any help I could get. It was an article on moving and helping kids adjust. The best tip I found in there was to help the kids know their things will be there at the end of the move, even though everything is getting packed into the endless sea of boxes. It's hard enough to find out where you packed the toilet paper at toothbrushes that first day, let alone the doll that they haven't played with in months but now have to have in order to go to sleep.

- When packing up the the children's things grab crayons, markers, and stickers. Let them decorate their boxes so they can know exactly where that favorite stuffed kitty is. From being loaded in to the moving truck to part of the box fort at the new place they will always have it in their sight. This is also a great chance to take a break and spend some time with them. I can definitely tell when my kids need their mommy to stop being a crazy packing machine and give them some attention.

The unpacking of this move went great(minus a few scratches in my paint). We had help from the congregation of the local chapter of our church, and it was done in 45 minutes! Everyone was great but I did notice things could have gone smoother while putting boxes in rooms. One of the guys unloading let me in on a little secret:

- When they had moved they used color coded tape with the names of the rooms already printed on it! ~Now is the moment I've had several times in my close-children mommyhood, "why didn't someone tell me about that sooner?!".~ Sheer genius! So instead of having to make sure my kids didn't get ran over by furniture AND telling people where boxes went, I could have just hung out with the kids.

My Tip: If you are blessed enough to have help loading and unloading then baby gate up a room and play a movie on the laptop, color, or play with some empty boxes(outside is great for forts). This way you don't have to worry about the kids getting hurt.