Packing with Pippi

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been so pleased with Pippi. Our home has been in complete uproar, I haven't been the best Mom in the world (you should have seen some of my dinner creations), and she's had to watch and help as we've packed up all of our stuff, little by little. Here are some of the things that she ended up doing to entertain herself.

-Watching TV--At one point she was very upset and said, "Mom you let me watch too much TV today, and now I have a headache!"

-Painting--Before we threw away her paints, Pippi had one last whirl painting to her hearts content. Thank goodness she's five and can paint cleanly, sort of. After we threw away her paints, she wanted to paint again, I told her the paints were packed up, and she held up a bottle of my nail polish and a terra cotta pot we were getting ready to throw away. I shrugged my shoulders and said sure.

-Packing--I lovingly compelled Pippi to help me pack away her tea set, showing her how to carefully wrap each dish so it wouldn't break. After that she decided to gently pack her favorite rocks in multiple layers of sandwich bags. I told her we would not be sending her rocks with the movers. She said she would just put them in her backpack in the car.

-Biking--She spent hours outside riding her bike.

-Playing--She also played with her neighborhood friends.

-The last day, Pippi wanted to help with the spackling. She was very determined, so I let her give it a try.

The day the movers came, she left the house to go and play at a friends house, and that was it. After everything was packed and loaded, Nick and I picked up the kids. In the car I told her that many of our friends stopped by while we were moving to say goodbye. She said, "Well, they say goodbye, but I say, 'Texas, here I come!'" She's been saying goodbye all week to them in her own way, I guess. One boy gave her a rock, one girl gave her money, and one day, they all had a snack on the lawn together with cookies and cake and popcorn. It's been a good final week, and as always, life is ten times more fun with Pippi.