For as difficult as Gabriel can be, whining and drama isn't among his foibles. Katrina is following in Gabriel's footsteps in terms of temperament, with the notable exception that she will cry if she's scolded, though it's an angry cry, not a hurt cry, and is often followed up by an act of aggression.
Could it be that tough-cookie tantruming personality traits disincline a kid toward whining? Of course I don't mean that they're mutually exclusive; Julian can throw a tantrum and Gabriel from time to time can complain, but at least in this household, there's a definite pattern that the stronger personalities are less likely to whine -- and the softer personality is less likely to wage all-out war.
Dave noticed today that Katrina now really is counting -- not just reciting numbers as she has been for months, but actually moving objects one at a time as she counts them. That and her relentless fascination with all things wheeled made him add that she really is like a female toned-down version of Gabriel (with the huge exceptions of crying when scolded, and no language delay). Dave isn't into personality analysis, so this made a strong impression!
I'm wondering how audible our day-to-day antics will be to our new neighbors. It's really interesting exploring another house -- it's layout changes a lot of things in our lives. We're not on a corner now, so we have neighbors on either side, and close. But the backyard butts up against another backyard -- no more neighbors waving at us through her kitchen window while we're having dinner.
I took the boys to the "new" house this afternoon to figure out where furniture would go and what room would do what. This house is smaller than ours, but is far and away the largest rental we saw, and has a huge benefit: an attached garage! That's a luxury I could quickly get used to. Also, there is a living room, dining room and family room, plus the 4 bedrooms, to help us spread out. The 3 bedrooms aren't huge, but we really can't complain.
Still, there will be some challenges. Everything is so cheap in the new house -- the kitchen faucet is awful (and I'm very in-tune with faucets these days!), the doors and walls are thin, the windows drafty and ugly. And none of the outlets are grounded -- this will be a big challenge plugging in all our computer and office equipment! Tomorrow a moving company is scoping out the job, and they're skeptical that we can fit a 2600 sq.ft. house into an 1800 sq.ft one.
I came up with a stroke of genius -- rare for me these days -- in how to figure out what to move where. I wrote down each piece of furniture and its width on a separate sticky note, at home. Then at the "new" house, I walked around the rooms and put a sticky note the wall where I thought each item could go. This was really helpful! Now I have a decent idea of how our house will be arranged, what items will have to be left behind (my craft area, sob!); others will go into different rooms. If I were REALLY organized, I'd take a photo of each piece of furniture, print it, cut it out, and tape it to the wall for the movers, but that's a lot of work. I don't feel like it.
Gabriel couldn't understand why all three of them couldn't share a room. Not because thinks it's unfair Katrina gets her own room (that comes later), but because he wants to take care of her at night. Awww!
The boys had a great time measuring stuff, with Gabriel actually measuring walls and helping me decide if a bookshelf or something would fit there. I had him measure the !TWO!Walk-in!Closets!! in the master bedroom and taught him the Very Important Rule that MOM gets the biggest closet.
I brought a carload of stuff over, mostly to make spending a few hours there easier -- toilet paper, snacks, pantry items, pen and paper, baby-changing stuff. I was just about done putting the sticky notes on the wall when Dave and Katrina arrived. The boys had been pretty cool up to that point, but Katrina's energy and excitement revved them up -- she was thrilled to be back at her playplace. It was hard to get much done after that, but I glowed in enjoyment and pride at watching my joyful children playing together.
Then, another major change in our lives: Trader Joe's! My favorite TJ's will now be inconvenient, but a lesser one will be downright easy to get to, as I learned when I took Katrina there after leaving the "new" house. A different TJs...wow.
Praise be...Julian finally stopped wailing. He may not tantrum the way his siblings do, but he can still make life miserable for a long long long time.
5/25/08
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