New Paint

Today the painters covered the wall in the girls’ room with green paint to prepare the house for renters moving in. Lu ran up the stairs, excited to see what it looked like and stopped dead in her tracks when she peered into the room. She turned to me with tears in her eyes and said, “Something’s wrong.” I explained to her about the renters and she kept saying “I just don’t understand. It just doesn’t make sense.“ I gave her a hug and we talked about some of the things she would miss here (her friends, the Babar mural on her wall) and then some of the things she is excited about in her new house (the tree house, the beach, Disney Land) and she then went bounding downstairs onto the next activity, Babar momentarily forgotten.

It’s not the first of such incidents and it won’t be the last I’m sure. For now, Evie seems more confident about moving, while Lucy has more questions and concerns. But with both of them, it’s hard to know if they really understand what it means.

To me, even though my days are suddenly filled with calling moving companies, sorting clothes, making yard sale signs and doing other moving-related activities, the whole things seems a bit unreal. I know our days here - the early morning rush to get both girls to school, the run around the park with Nonie in the stroller, the mid-afternoon attempt at cleaning and cooking while Nonie naps, the walk to pick Evie up and then time to chat with friends while the girls run around with their friends… with three kids, it’s always a bit chaotic, but we’re all familiar with the routine. I try sometimes to imagine a similar routine but with palm trees as a background instead of willows. Like Lu, I have so many questions. Will we meet up with friends to have barbecues in the park on Saturday nights? Is there a good place for me to go running with Nonie in the stroller? Will people take the time to have the kids play together after school or will they all be rushing off as soon as the bell rings? There’s really no way to know until we get there.

Sometimes I find myself wondering what we will miss that we haven‘t thought about yet. In all of my talks about moving with the girls, I had never thought about the murals on their wall until right before the painters came in with the paint. We took a picture of the mural for Lu to keep and remember. For now she’ll sleep in a room painted “Pale Vista Green”. It’s not Babar, but it really is a beautiful color.