Moving babies and gardens and avoiding shocking both

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - My husband says I would be happy living in a cardboard box.  I interpret this to mean I am not a princess when it comes to our type of house or area we live in - while he is. I grew up in a central city neighbourhood; he in the suburbs.  My family car required blankets in the winter and rolling down the window to reach outside to open the handle to exit.  His family drove a Lexus.  I played in the sprinkler; he had an inground pool.  I am not judging either of these lifestyles, just commenting on our different backgrounds and perspectives we bring to the table.  I adored my shared, non-air conditioned, 100-year-old apartment situated in a trendy urban area while I attended university.  He lived at home until the last possible minute. 

And so while we were happy in our almost-new, hardwood floor and granite-laden first family home, he was not completely satisfied.  This past winter we visited a show home in a new development, a past time we both enjoy for decorating ideas and future building plans.  The house had a huge garage and was even shinier than our current home.  Suddenly, the future became now and we were moving.

Then the work began.  Anyone who has moved with kids knows where I am going with this: the nightmare of showing a home with babies, packing with babies, doing anything with babies.  Added to this, our four-year-old daughter, Shanna, decided early on this was a terrible idea.  She did not want to leave her fabulous pink room and finished yard to move to a beige house with a mud pit. 

The old backyard.

The new backyard.

Right now we are mostly moved in to the shiny house, although the new owners have not taken the old one yet.  So we go back and forth, cutting the lawns at both places, digging out some more perennials, visiting old neighbours, going into the old house to tear up and remember all the wonderful memories (okay, I am the only who does this).  We really are dragging it out.   Shanna says we should hurry up and move back before the new people get here from China.

Shanna enjoying winter in the old back yard.

So what do you do with a kid that does not want to move and a hundred plants that like where they are now?  You uproot them and move them anyway, hoping you can give them enough care to make the transition as smooth as possible. 

I dug up anything that looked green as soon as it popped out in the spring, dumping bone meal in each container to help the roots take.  I took Shanna to the fabric store to pick out a theme for her new room and gave her lots of chocolate. 

I put the plants in the new garage out of the wind, let them have sunlight each day and watered them diligently until the garden and yard were ready.  I distracted Shanna with trips to a nearby playground and made sure she had lots of hugs and kisses. 

My dear plants waiting for a new home.

When some of the plants started drooping, I gave them special care, cutting them back so they would focus on roots and not green growth or blooms.  When Shanna started obviously acting up and becoming more defiant, I re-examined my tactics, stopped focussing on discipline and started going with the flow.

Now the yard has some grass and dirt and the plants are in the ground.  After growing quite well in their containers, they seem to have paused in the hot summer heat, although I only lost one or two in the transition.  Shanna is now happy running through the sprinkler on the grass, we have picked out a special spot for her to grow her own rose bush and she only talks about the old house now and then. 

And Daddy is very happy in his new castle.