Homeless with a Toddler

For the last 6 and half months my husband, toddler daughter, and I lived in hotels waiting for our house to close escrow. We gave notice at our tiny two bedroom apartment too early and then we fell out of escrow. Oh, and did I mention I found out I was pregnant the week we had to move all our stuff in to a storage unit? (three storage units actually). A lot of people thought we were crazy, but in the end it paid off because we got our house!!! It is amazing. It even has a fruit orchard. It is amazing how God works things out. Believe me, I thought it wasn't gonna work out more than once. Audrey was 14 months old when we moved into various hotel rooms. She is now 21 months old when we finally moved into our house. We made it in time to get ready for Luke (our son, due in September). Needless to say, my husband and I are experts at traveling with a toddler. It is really cool that hotel rooms are pretty child proof. Bring in a bag of toys and you have yourself a portable bedroom. Blackout curtains work great for tired, cranky, toddlers. In fact, now that we are in a house without blackout curtains, Audrey wakes up at the crack of dawn. It is really cool that someone cleans up after your toddler's mess. Poopy diapers, crumbs on the floor, messy towels on the floor are all cleaned up after a visit to the grocery store. My husband had a whole nap time system for when the maid came to clean. He would take Audrey in the car for her daily nap while the maid cleaned the room. Looking back on this experience after it's all said and done I realize that it was worth all the moving around because I am sitting here in my huge living room in my huge house. If we were not patient or willing to be flexible we would not have been able to be here. I think my daughter is very flexible with different situations because of this out-of-the-ordinary experience. She knows how to have a different schedule without having a meltdown. We can travel anywhere and she is fine with it. I love seeing her in her new pink princess bedroom because it reminds me of how as a family we worked together and made this house happen together. We were all patient and it paid off. In the end, my point is that every child needs a little bump in their schedule. I think Audrey will now always be ready for new experiences and traveling to new places. I am glad we don't have to do this anymore, but looking back it was a great experience.