Change: It Does Not Always Sit Well, Especially With Lucy

I am sitting in bed listening to the hysterical laughter of my daughter, Lucy, and the witty banter of my husband. Twenty minutes ago, I was laying in bed with her as she sobbed, “I want to go home!”

Lucy is not one that does change well. When she was 20 months old we relocated from Maryland to Vermont. I did not think that, at twenty months, the move would affect her much. Surprising to both my husband and I, she asked once a week for six months when we would be returning “home,” meaning Maryland. It took a lot of explaining and a room makeover before I convinced her that Vermont was her new home.

Today, she has no recollection of ever living in Maryland. Home is now Vermont. Home is our big falling down farmhouse.  Home is our half an acre of land that houses various types of rope swings. Home is the park, a two-block walk from our front door. Home is her friends, her school, and her Mi MA and Pop Pop.

Despite our efforts to highlight the positive aspect of living in a new place, with new adventures to be had, Lucy misses her home. And because she misses her home she is having a hard time accepting and loving this new home. She grieves, and each time she melts down, sobbing for the familiar, my heart ties itself in a knot.

Thank God for the wit of my husband, who can bring a smile and produce a laugh during some of the worst times. He handles her grief much better than I do.  He knows that potty and physical humor will make Lucy laugh even in the saddest of times. He is currently twisting the title of The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss into a variety of toilet-oriented titles. Including The 500 Farts of Prune Juice McGee.  This one in particular turned her gut wrenching sobs into breathless belly laughter.

Things are quieting down now. I have placed a pad complete with pillow blanket and stuffed animal next to my bed in the hopes that when Lucy migrates from her bed to ours in the middle of the night (as she has done every night since occupying our new house) she can rest peacefully and comfortably far from the fears and worries that moving has created.