Good morning. I hope you all had a nice weekend. My mom left yesterday after spending the last two weeks in Charlotte with us. Prior to that we spent a week in Florida so we’ve been together for three weeks. It’s definitely an adjustment to get used to her not being here.
There was a reason for her extended visit…I am buying a house and we are moving!!! Things have been pretty crazy behind the scenes for the last few weeks but I wanted to wait until I was sure that the house was going to go through before I shared anything publicly. The market is wild in Charlotte and it’s been an interesting and intense process.
I have been casually looking for houses for the last six months and unexpectedly went under contract on a house while I was in Florida. My mom was already planning to drive back with us to help with the drive and spend time in Charlotte but she extended her trip to help me with inspections, purging, packing, etc.
I am beyond grateful for the time she spent with us. It was wonderful to have her support on all things home buying and to have help with Finn, especially given how short our due diligence period was and how quickly closing is approaching. She promises to come back soon to help us get settled in the new house. 🙂
I have been renting my current home for almost 3.5 years and Finn joined the party during the time I was here so I have a LOT to sort through and pack up. It’s daunting and awesome all at the same time. I’m taking this opportunity to really wipe the slate clean and start fresh.
I’ll share more house stuff in future posts. Let me know if you have any specific questions!
Another huge development is that Finn started climbing out of his crib so I transitioned his crib to a toddler bed over the weekend. You guys, I was hoping that we could get through this move before any sleep situation changes happened but my little monkey had other plans. (Related, I ask him all the time if he’s a monkey or a snuggle bug and 90% of the time he answers “snuggle bug.”) Once Finn climbed out once it was game over. He knew he could do it and I was so worried about him falling and hurting himself.
We’ve done two nights and one nap in the toddler bed and it’s gone better than expected. Luckily, he can’t turn the doorknobs yet (only a matter of time) so while he does get out of his bed, he doesn’t leave his room. I am undecided about whether I will turn the doorknobs around in the new house. My initial thought was that it was cruel to essentially lock him in his room but I’ve read some things about safety that make a lot of sense to me. I’m also unsure of what to do about baby gates both at his doorway and at the top of the stairs as I’m worried he’ll also try to climb over those.
The first few times that Finn climbed out of his crib and got out of his toddler bed, I’d go in his room to find all the lights on and him reading a book or sitting in his chair. I’ve since removed all access to lights and lots of other things. I’m also figuring out what to do with the outlet where the white noise machine and monitor are plugged in. I am either going to get some sort of outlet/cord cover or move furniture in front of it (and anchor it) in the new house.
Navigating toddlers sure does keep your problem solving skills sharp! 🙂
And with that, Finn and I are off to tackle a day of packing. I need to sort through the attic and outdoor shed at some point and it’s supposed to be 94 degrees today. Send lots of cooling thoughts our way.
QUESTIONS
Give me all of your best moving tips! And tips for getting kids settled in a new place.
When is the last time you moved? Do you like or loathe moving?
How did the crib to bed transition go for you? Did you move to a floor bed, toddler bed or regular bed? I can’t decide what I want to do! I’m equally torn between keeping him in this toddler bed, getting a Montessori-style floor bed or getting a regular “big” full/queen bed.
We went straight from crib to queen with siderails. I didn’t want to spend Money on toddler bed, then single, then have him outgrow that (his dad is a linebacker sized guy so I am anticipating a big teen). It took a good month before toddler got used to big boy bed and would stay all night. We have one of those stoplight clocks and that, plus minimal interaction and walking straight back to bed, worked for us. Best of luck and thank you for sharing all the ups and downs and navigations of life. Makes me feel like I’m not alone!
My daughter is now 4 1/2 but shortly after she turned two we moved her from her crib into a queen size bed. She wasn’t climbing out of her crib… We just kind of decided to go for it. Everything with toddlers is so personality wise so I should say my daughter is not a control freak, fairly easy-going and is a rule follower/people pleaser. She really had no problems with leaving her bed After I told her not to (see above re: rule following lol) but I did lock her in her room for the first little while just in case (just put a childproof lock on her door handle). I put guard rails on either side of the bed. My reasoning for going straight to the queen bed was that it was just a one time purchase rather than having to buy several different items of furniture as she grows.
Congrats Jen and Finn! Wishing you many happy years and memories in your new home
Congratulations!! So happy for you!!
I am not great at moving — or getting moved into a new place. That said, my parents JUST moved 10 days ago and my mom is a super mover. Everything in boxes was labeled specifically and it made for such an easy transition into their new home! Call ahead for hook ups (internet, etc.) so you get on their schedule.
Congratulations on the new house! I moved when my oldest (now 5) was about a year old, and I did 2 things that absolutely saved our lives:
1. I packed 2-3 days worth of clothes, diapers, toys, crib sheets, bath stuff, towels, toothbrush, cups/plates/utensils, and whatever else he was using/needed on a daily basis in a suitcase that I took over to the new house myself so that I didn’t need to make myself insane trying to search through boxes on the first night.
2. I had the movers load everything from his room (crib/bed, dressers, boxes, etc.) into the truck last so that they could unload it and get his room set up at the new house first, before they did anything else. Our move started in the morning, but it was 5pm before the truck got to the new house, so that way i could feed and bathe him, and get him to sleep in his new room at a reasonable time before I started tackling the unpacking in the rest of the house.
Good luck!!
We have gates that are 36” tall and swing open with a childproof latch. They’re much harder to climb over. We still have one at the top/bottom of the stairs for our 4 year old because of how steep they are. I highly recommend them. Good luck with the move!
We just moved from California to Alabama with my 2 year old son. I hadn’t originally planned it this way – but everything for his room ended up being unloaded from the moving truck first. So I set up his room first, he quickly recognized all his stuff and starting calling it “my room.” It worked really well for the rest of the unpacking because he had a safe kinda familiar place to play and nap when the rest of the house was chaotic. We also talked about the move a lot and our new house and looked at pictures of the new house at night time while we read stories and did our night time routine. I reassured him that everyone would be coming to the new house including his dog who is his BFF. Congrats on the new home!!
We just moved a year ago with a 3 yo and a 5 yo, I’d recommend having his room completely set up for his first night there! The familiar furniture and things will help his transition and make it feel a bit more like home for him 🙂
I thought I saw you out in front of a listing that just went UC when I was leaving my house the other day–any chance you’re going to be our new block neighbors at the corner house on B-street as I’ll call it for privacy! Regardless, congrats but if so, you’re on an awesome street and hopefully once all this Covid craziness dies down we will be hosting our block party again!
When we moved our daughter out of her crib we put child proof covers over her door knob so she could not open and potentially fall down the stairs. (We also had a camera and a monitor so we could keep a good eye on her). We have a box over one of our outlets that has a spot for the cords to come out and makes it so a small child can’t pull it out of the wall.
Congratulations on your home! We closed on a new home Friday! Our first buyers fell apart due to financing, so we are keeping our fingers crossed we won’t encounter problems with the new ones we have!
Huge congratulations, Jen and Finn!! I bought my first home at the end of March right as all this pandemic ramped up in the US – it was both weird but exciting! Honestly, that was a huge blessing in disguise as I didn’t realize how much time/money/effort goes into home ownership after a decade plus of tiny apartment living. Good luck with the bed transition with Finn and exciting news about the move to a new home with your adorable little family!
So curious if you still own your other house that you ended up renting out?
I was wondering the same thing!
Congrats on your new home purchase! Can’t wait to follow along for your exciting new move.
Fun news! Congrats! All the best with packing!
We have moved 10 times in our 12 years of marriage and we love it! Starting fresh and cleaning out stuff is the best and so we always travel light. Some advice about getting Finn settled would be to get his room set up as much as you can the day you arrive. Have as much of his room look the same as what it is now so he feels it is familiar and settles more easily. You guys will be great! Happy packing and hope it cools down for you guys! x
With moving, my best advice is to be completely moved in as much as possible before introducing a new home to toddlers. We ensured our toddlers rooms especially were completely ready, welcoming and ready for them the day we decided to stay for good. This meant a bit more time at the previous place prior but it was worth doing a lot of unpacking and organizing without a toddler underfoot. If you can get child care or have Finn visit his dad during that phase, it’s ideal. Also, Finn will feel much more at ease sleeping in a new location when he’s got everything ready to go and Mom isn’t distracted and stressed from excess unpacking and boxes. Worked beautifully for our family with toddlers ages just turned 2 and almost 4 at the time.
We’re moving this Friday, and it is NO JOKE to have small children underfoot while you’re trying to pack everything up and go through the moving checklist! If you have outlets that are up higher, that would be the way to go with the sleep machine, or just moving furniture in front. My kids figured out how to take off our outlet covers, so I ended up putting a strip of duct tape over them, ha!
Congrats on the house! We are also casually looking and hoping something pops up soon. We are renting but would love to buy in the same neighborhood.
My son is 2 months older than Finn. When he started to try to crawl out of the crib, I just put the mattress directly on the floor, still in the crib and it’s worked well. He’s not tall enough to climb out when it’s on the floor. But, I have a 6 month old who will need the crib soon ( he’s currently using the pack n play w mattress as his crib) we plan on just getting bunk beds that can separate so he will have a single bed after the crib! With rails!
congrats on the new house! For my girls once they were out of their cribs (at 3) they went right into their real beds, i thought the less i needed to do.another transition, the better. But, they were pushing 3. I think those Montessori beds are so cute! I’m hoping the sleep sack keeps my 2 year old in the crib one more year bc hes all over the place lol.
Also, I am ALL about turning the doorknob around , but not bc i locked them in. My son, at 20 months, locked himself in his dark bedroom, and we could not get it unlocked! We had to take the whole doorknob apart and MacGyver it open! Bc it was so dark in his room he was crying, and I felt so bad! Doorknob is now turned!
You should get some of those baby proofing door knob covers – they are super cheap and work really well! My son has never been able to open the door with one on, but he easily opens doors without and he is only about a month older than Finn.
Good luck!!
My son shocked us early by crawling out of his crib! We put him in a toddler bed but did opt to lock the door. We have stairs and I was Worried he get out and climb the gate!
Congrats on the new home! I HATE moving, but we moved twice within a 2 year period and I figured out some good ways to stay organized. First of all, hire movers! When we moved from an apartment to a townhouse, we recruited friends to help us move but when we moved into our house we decided to hire movers and it was money well spent! They were able to do move everything in just a couple of hours, it took our friends and I all day (plus money for a truck, pizza and snacks for our friends).
Second, I labeled all of the boxes with what rooms they needed to go into and then at the house I labeled the various rooms (ex: office, guest bedroom, master bedroom, etc) so the boxes could just go straight where they belonged without any direction on which bedroom was which.
Third, I packed one box or tub with a set of clean sheets, toiletries, clean towels and a shower curtain. The first thing you’ll want to do after a long day of moving is take a shower and sleep in your bed. It’s so much nicer to have that stuff at the ready instead of having to dig through boxes.
Congrats on buying a house! That is so exciting! I hope that the closing and moving process goes as smoothly as possible!
We just moved in late November. Our son is about 2 months older than Finn. It is definitely a lot of work! My biggest tip is to be as organized as possible beforehand, hire movers if you can afford, and have child care for Finn that day. Our movers told us we were the most organized couple they had ever seen. We had all of the boxes on the main level so they got us moved in just over 2 hours. We had everything well-labeled so they knew which room to move the boxes to. And luckily, our son was in daycare so we didn’t have to watch him while unpacking/settling in. We were actually pretty much 100% unpacked by the time I went to get him from daycare at the end of the day. But I HATE having boxes around. Plus we had rented green boxes and had planned to have them picked up the following Monday so I knew I had to get everything unpacked. Plus that next week was Thanksgiving and we hosted my parents for 2 nights and had my whole family (there were 14 of us total) over for dinner the day after Thanksgiving. We had also gradually moved some items over to the new house ahead of time as we closed on the purchase 2 months before closing on the sale of the house. So he had been in the house and done some exploring which really seemed to help. The move was actually pretty smooth all in all! I wish for the same for you!
Both my sons (now 14 and 11) moved right to a full sized bed with inflatable bed rails. We invested in nice beds that they still use and will use for many years to come. The bed rails worked great while they needed them. When they were Finn’s age, my husband or I could lay down with them for a bedtime story (and sometimes till they fell asleep) and we could easily fit in the full bed with them. This also deterred them from wanting to lay down in our bed if they woke in the middle of the night because one of else could always go lay down with them if needed, and then return to our bed. We also purchased child proof things for the door knobs because it is safer for them to be in their room with a monitor than rooming the house while you are sleeping.
Congratulations on your new house, how exciting! I don’t like having a lot of stuff so I enjoy moving because it gives me a chance to pare everything back. I’ve moved a few times since having children and my kids have transitioned really easily. The main thing I’ve done to help them settle is having their beds set up in their new rooms so that there is some familiarity. Good luck! 🙂
Congratulations!
With both of my kids they went to a queen size bed, mattress on the floor to start. We happened to have extra beds from when my husband and I consolidated apartments into our house before we got married and it’s so nice! Lots of room for snuggling, laying with them, sleeping with them on occasion, reading, etc.
Congratulations! I hope your new house is everything you want in a home.
Congratulations! We are military and just had to move this June. I always pack a suitcase with about 1 weeks worth of clothes and day to day things needed so there is no stress over hunting for things while unpacking. This was our first with baby boy so his essentials were in his room before any furniture or boxes. If moving local, really helps to pack valuables and if you can, clothes (leave them hanging) yourself and have some things set up before movers arrive. A ton of boxes just dropped feels overwhelming and more work to get rid of so anything you get in place ahead of time is a help!
So wonderful that you bought a house for your family ? We just moved over two months ago to our new house and it was my third move in four years, one of which was international. The biggest thing I have learned is to give myself a break. I always push so hard to get everything done as quickly as possible. It is very nice to have a lovely home quickly setup, with everything put away, but it was also very nice to take more time because I was being kind and gentle with myself. So my advice would be to listen to your body/energy and take as many breaks along the way as possible. It does take longer but, this time, I feel less stressed as a result. All the best!