Did She Just Say "Today"?!

The day started easily enough. The mover was supposed to arrive at 9 AM, pack all of our breakable belongings so that they would be insured, and then go on her merry way not to be seen again until Monday when she was to come back with a crew to load the van. We had an under the table packer coming tomorrow to help pack everything else. The move was to be spread over three days, we had child care coverage to allow us get it all done, and we were ready.

The day even started with humor. At one point, Matt started making merciless fun of me because I had somehow acquired a bright blue splotch on my nose that was difficult to get off. A few minutes later, he had a matching one and we couldn't trace them - some time later we discovered that the big blue "M" and "J" he had markered on the tops of our coffee cups this morning to tell them apart were rubbing off on our noses each time we took a sip.

Then there were the false moving truck sounds. Every two minutes Matt declared that he heard a "low rumbling sound" that could only be the 48 foot semi that was half an hour then an hour then two hours late. Once it was just a FedEx truck, but my favorite was when he definitely heard it and it was...absolutely nothing. Perhaps he should've invested in some Pepto.

I went off to a special tea party with Baxter and our friends Stacy and Lucy, a last hurrah good-bye celebration. Upon my return, I discovered that the driver had brought a crew of 3 guys and they were claiming that they could finish this job today. They would pack everything for us and only charge us for the breakables if we would let them do the whole job in one fell swoop. This woman clearly wanted to get on the road and start driving. After some deliberation (what about the laundry I just put in? the million things we still needed to take off the walls? are we really packed for the plane? what about all that food still in the fridge?), we accepted. My parents brought up a car for us to use (ours was suddenly going on the truck today) and our valiant babysitter, Beata, came back and took the boys out for a few hours this afternoon so that we could get it done. When I left with the boys at 6PM to come down here to my parents' to get them to bed, the house was pretty close to empty, but there were still a few closets full of stuff and many of our worldly belongings set out on the sidewalk around our home.

While this change in plan was sudden and utterly chaotic today, it did have the benefit of cutting our packing and moving time from three days down to one. Matt and I will go back up in the morning to deliver a bed we are giving away and do some last clean-up jobs before closing the place up. After that we have a few days with nothing planned to be down here in San Carlos, where the sky is blue and the air is warm; not what we left in foggy San Francisco this evening.

So our leaving became sudden. Probably for the best, since we were all having some trouble saying good-bye to our home and our lives here. After weeks of heartfelt good-byes to our friends, family, babysitter, neighbors, colleagues and clients (oh, my little clients!), I for one am ready for the next chapter, where each day we will encounter new beginnings and relationships, rather than living in a constant state of endings.

Top 5 Signs that Your Family is Preparing to Move Cross-Country

5. You are all exhausted. All the time. And probably more emotionally than physically, although it all looks the same.

4. Your husband's company deems it a good time to send him on not one but two business trips in the next two weeks, taking him away for 4 nights...and one of them is to Chicago.

3. Your kindergartner cries - no, bawls dramatically - at the drop of a hat at unusual times, such as when a friend asks if you are going to be giving away any of your houseplants. ("Nooooo...*sob*...not the spiiiider plaaaaannntssss....*sob*...")

4. The same elder child emerges from his bedroom long after he was assumed to be asleep, and gives as his reason for being awake: "I can't sleep. Everything in my room is too the same. Nothing is different."

5. Your toddler makes endless requests at bedtime in an effort to keep you in there and is now in the crib with all of the following items: three baby dolls, a kitchen timer, a cup of water, and his rocket ship slippers (on a warm night when he's in summer pj's). You have removed a lamp that seemed to be offensive. Furthermore, your spouse has had to go in to fulfill a request to pose a large Curious George monkey on his changing table in a certain way, and again later to pick up a tube of lotion that fell way across the room and purportedly hurt his arm. Note that he is in the crib; I did not say asleep in the crib. At a certain point it's time to say good night and leave him to find a corner amongst all those items to just go to sleep.

A Young Cheetah Moves

When I went to Chicago last week, my Cheetah Boy had just one request beyond the eat-in kitchen (yes, he did actually ask for that) and the Super Hero Training class at the Y. He wanted me to bring back a little cheetah toy. Luckily, the neighborhood toy store had just the thing.

He loves this cheetah. The cheetah goes everywhere; he sleeps with Baxter, he is read to by Baxter, and he comes along to the playground, where Baxter directs me in making a cheetah den with sticks and tree bark (so that the other animals can't see the "kill" - a dead gazelle - that the cheetah has hidden away in there).

But what he really wants to do with the cheetah is to pretend he is moving. In this incredibly transparent game, Baxter sets up the African savannah where the cheetah used to live and makes him move to the African forest.

In the savannah, the cheetah shyly listens as the animals (his friends) ask him why he is moving ("I just need to, it's time to go," he says) and then bows his head further and does not reply when they say they will miss him. He races off toward the forest but slows considerably as he approaches the line-up of unfamilar animals. Baxter tells me the cheetah feels shy and a little scared about meeting all of these new animals, and I make him laugh by demonstrating many inappropriate ways to approach a crowd of new kids - er - animals.

All of a sudden, though, Baxter looks up with a gleam in his eye and says, "But Mommy! The cheetah has something really exciting about his new home!"

"What's that?" I ask.

"He has a cousin who already lives there!" he says with full-throttle enthusiasm, and makes the cheetah go bounding off into the group of new animals to greet his cousin, a smaller, more orange version of himself.

I found it!

I am happy to report that I have returned victorious. I am back from Chicago two days ahead of schedule, having found a wonderful rental house on Day One of my search. My mother and I - with the assistance of a very helpful rental agent named Ed - looked at a whole lot of dumps before coming across this lovely house at 1711 W. Fletcher St. (It is the blue house shown in the photos. The photo of the row of houses is across the street from us...the whole block looks like this!) Not only is it a 2-story unit (a house "with an upstairs and a downstairs" - Baxter's dream!), but there are two decks and a nice little yard out back, three bedrooms and two full baths, a laundry room on the 1st floor, central heat and A/C, a garage, and a real kitchen with a dishwasher! (If you've been to our apartment, you'll understand why this last one is a thrill.)

Amazingly, the house is about 1 1/2 blocks from Baxter's new school - we can see the playground from the front porch. Also from the front porch we can see house after house after house full of children. I went last night around 6pm and walked around, and everyone was coming home for the evening - kids of all ages were everywhere!! I could see from the back of our new house that all of the yards within view contained little trikes, scooters, and wading pools. And I didn't even mention the racial diversity! These houses are NOT all occupied by white folks! It was clear, from my little walk last night, that the area is very diverse.

We'll be 4 blocks from the El stop, 2 blocks from the library, around the corner from a large grocery store (similar to Safeway) and just a few blocks from a big Whole Foods. We all seem to be equally excited about the ice cream shop a block away. (I had trouble getting that song "Ain't that America..." out of my head while I was strolling around last night.)

The YMCA is also just 4 blocks away and I actually signed us up today in order to get the kids spaces in a couple of summer classes. Yes, Baxter will get to take the "Super Hero Training" class he has been longing for ("learn to leap from tall buildings" - in a gym, of course! - "capes optional"). There was also a tumbling class that acoommodated both boys. So we already have a couple of classes each week that we'll be doing - a good way to give our days a little structure and meet some other kids (and moms!).

People were very friendly, seeking out eye contact and saying hello no matter where in the city we were. I loved the comfortable feeling of this neighborhood - pretty little houses on these tree-lined streets but just around the block it felt very urban.

I love it, and I think we're going to be very happy there.