Today, I took the family back to Gilbert Gardens to see our house, officially, for the first time. Last night, after Dub went home, I showed Sophia pictures of the inside to confirm with her my choice. As suspected, she agreed wholeheartedly. When we walked in, the familiar scene greeted us with a warm invitation. After scrolling through the pictures over the last few days, being inside was so magical. It felt like home. Sophia was especially taken with all the red accents in the living room. I think it’s hilarious how she says she doesn’t have a favorite color, but it’s so obvious that she does.
We’ve had many signs that this was to be our home even before we bought it, and the inside confirms it even more. First, with Sophia’s favorite color, and now my mother’s. The kitchen is green, and throughout my life, it seems like most of our intimate moments happened in kitchens. I’m not a big fan of the color, but it felt like fate.
The eat-in kitchen is such a large room, as I said previously. It’s totally gonna end up being the family room. Me and Sophia already hang together while we’re cooking anyway, so with the computer and toys for Desi in the mix, I don’t see how we’ll ever leave this room. Sophia is the only one who watches TV, and she really only does that when she’s alone, so I don’t see the living room getting much use.
It’s interesting how a home’s layout makes all the difference. This house is roughly the same size as our current one, but it feels so much more spacious. I especially love having different places to hang out. Upstairs, there’s a nice loft-like area that I’m sure Desi and her cousins will take over when they’re older. I wish we could have had a spot like that in our current house. Tummy time would have been so much more comfortable than squeezing into a narrow hallway.
All the bedrooms and the hall bath open to this space. Our bedroom is super tiny, so the wardrobe sits just outside the door. It’ll be tough to leave behind our large bedroom, but we’ve lived the tiny room life before and will do it again happily. At least we finally got our own bathroom this time. We might have to change the color scheme, though, because the bedroom is the one place I don’t want to be thinking about Mama.
I love Desi’s room. It has such a sweet yet calm vibe, just like her. It’s a shame she’ll probably never sleep in it as is. I hope I can find a similar set in a child size to maintain the vibe.
When the cousins come over, two of them can stay in the spare room, and the other can camp out in the loft with a sleeping bag.
There’s a nice size porch, and a fenced in side yard just like we have at our current house. But the pièces de résistance is the backyard. I’m glad to see all the stuff I ordered arrived, but I kicked myself for not thinking it through. I was too excited about giving the kids the best backyard ever and never once considered they’re all aging up the day after tomorrow. Hopefully, there’s a good return policy because that stuff was not cheap.
Once we finished touring the house and getting a feel for it, my next move was to leave and go back home, naturally. Sophia reminded me that this is our home and we could stay as long as we want unless I had something better to do. I most certainly did not, so we parked upstairs and sat on the floor with Desi.
“Do you like this house, Des?” I ask.
“Yeah!”
“Do you want to live here?”
“I go live in the dollie house!”
I swear we have the most adorable kid on earth. And I will fight anyone who disagrees, heh. Given how she behaved at Dub’s rental, I knew I wouldn’t have to convince her moving here was a good thing, but I had to be sure she understood this time we were definitely staying.
“We should pack up our photos and stuff tonight and move in tomorrow,” Sophia said.
“Why tomorrow?”
“Why not? It’s not like we’re taking much. Plus, I’d like to be settled before her birthday.”
Sometimes, I don’t understand my brain. Like, I’ll have something in my head to do, but for whatever reason, it doesn’t occur to me to do it right away. I honestly can’t tell you when I thought we’d move in, but it definitely was not tomorrow. Thank goodness my wife has better foresight than me.
“Are you excited about your birthday, Desi baby?” I ask.
“Birdaaaay!”
She’s excited because we’re excited, but I don’t think she knows what birthdays are all about yet, so I try to explain.
“It’s gonna be so fun! All your cousins will be here, and we’re gonna eat cake, and then you’ll be a BIG girl. Are you excited?”
“I cited!”
“What excites you most about being a big girl?” Sophia asks.
“I cited about TREE HOUSE, an I pway with Koopa an Wosie, an I cited about pway with you, Daddy!”
“Awww, I’m excited about playing with you, too. Are you excited about school?”
“What’s school?”
“School is a place where you go every day to learn important stuff and get super smart. There’ll be lots of other kids there, and you can make friends. And there’s a thing called recess where they let you go outside and run around for a little while. It’ll be fun.”
I do not doubt that little speech was more for convincing myself because the thought of her being away for that long every day makes me incredibly anxious, and I miss her already. How is my baby girl school-age already?? I should have asked Dub how he dealt with this transition.
“Does that sound like fun, sweet potato?” Sophia asks.
“Yeah! I gon’ have THIS MANY fwens!”
“Woooow that’s a lot of friends,” Sophia said.
I left them talking to go to the bathroom, and then I called Less to give her the plan. When I returned, I found my entire family in the kitchen, looking happy and comfortable, as if we’d been living here the entire time. I sensed that relief—that era of chill I’d been longing for—settling into the foundation of the house. If I would have known all we needed was a change of venue, I would have bought this house long time ago. But everything happens in its time for a reason. Whatever this new season will bring, I’m ready for it.
