August 15, 2007 | Mama Smith

the date is set

A bit of shock set in after hearing from our realtor this weekend that our house is, in fact, on schedule and will be completed by the end of the month. After getting used to the idea that it would mostly likely take a few weeks longer than originally estimated and that we’d mostly likely be hanging around Philly for another month, this lit a fire under us to get serious about packing and begin aligning all the necessary details for our move on the 28th of August.

Boxes now fill our once cozy den. Rugs are rolled, lamps are packed, plants are gathered in one corner to be parceled out to new homes. I feel in a bit of a daze, walking around our quickly-growing-scarce home and realizing…we are moving on.

Brighton, Levi and I went to our favorite neighborhood park this afternoon. The air beneath the trees was actually cool and not another person was in sight. We hadn’t been to this park for most of the summer, due to the tennis camps being held there and Brighton’s inability to grasp the concept that all those tennis balls bouncing around were not for his personal indulgence. After the third park trip and meltdown from my restraining his attempt to run onto the court, I decided we’d wait until tennis camp season was over.

Now we played alone in the silent breeze. I watched Brighton scale climbing walls, race up stairs and down the slides in ways he was never able to just a few months before. I couldn’t help but think back on all our trips to this park over the past few years. Sitting him in the swings before he could crawl, brushing him off after face-planting in the mulch as he learned to walk, gently guiding him across the same wobbly bridge that today he fearlessly raced back and forth on.

So many memories are filled in this half mile radius around our home, that Brighton and I, and now Levi as well, have explore day in and day out.

It’s a bit sad for me to realize that our boys most likely will not remember Philly. That memories of Mt. Airy won’t pluck at their hearts like it will ours. That Brighton won’t remember looking across the street and asking me what Olivia (then Marcie, then Matt, then Nigel, then Koby the dog) is doing at any given moment throughout the day. That Weavers Way, Highpoint, Allens Lane Park, will just be words connected to distant places that their parents recall stories of.

But at the same time, it’s exciting to think that their memories of growing up will include the nine (and probably more on the way) kiddos from my cousin’s families. That they’ll be loved on by, and get a chance to know, my grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins and their children. That they’ll have roots. Have family. That they’ll look back and think of our new house as their childhood home. That maybe they’ll be offered a childhood as rich and full of sweet memories as mine was growing up in South Carolina.

In just two weeks time, we’ll be spending our first night in Greenville as residents. With my aunt and uncle until our closing on September 4th, but as future home owners and not simply visitors.

It is going to be a whirlwind around here for the next 14 days. Hopefully our boys will be able be able to hang on in the midst of so much change and transition.

Brighton seems oblivious for now, beelining for his birthday toys from my folks – an awesome thrifted wooden kitchen set and wooden tool table – each morning. Every time I passed by his “oven” today, he looked at me with a very serious and urgent expression saying “VERY hot, mama. Oven’s VERY hot. Dangerous“. He promptly put on his oven mit to remove the plastic cooking bowl and plastic bottle he’d been “cooking”. Not the brightest chef, but he at least he’s taking proper safety precautions.

I think he’s got the hat thing a bit mixed up though. Chef hat for hammering. Bike helmet for cooking.

Today he refused to remove it after attempting to take a spin on his kinderbike, the lone birthday gift we gave him that he still doesn’t quite fit on. We never get it right in the gift arena. At least he likes the helmet though. And it fits.

As for little Levi, he didn’t enjoy Brighton’s party quite as much as we all did. He was immunized that morning, resulting in a crazy high fever, on top of hatching his first two bottom teeth. He spent the afternoon trying to wrestling his aching body to sleep and has been a bit tired, cranky and generally off ever since. Although, that could be due to all the prunes he’s been eating lately. Those shriveled little purple guys can wreak major havoc. Maybe we’ll switch back to boiled pears tomorrow.

Keep us in your thoughts over the next two weeks as we attempt to pack the remains of our house with these two boys underfoot, keep our heads above the swelling waters of details to manage, and hopefully stay sane, united and rested in the process. Wishful thinking?