Claire's New Floor

We had new carpet installed upstairs this weekend and Claire had a funny reaction to all the chaos. We had been talking to her about how she was going to have a new floor and she seemed excited. We started clearing out our upstairs rooms early in the week, but saved Claire's room and most of the big stuff for Friday while she was in preschool.

When she came home from preschool, she didn't even notice the giant pile of stuff we had moved into our living room. (A testament to my housekeeping, perhaps?) But when we went to the staircase, she immediately noticed the gate was gone. She asked me if it was broken. I explained it was not broken, but that we moved it because we were getting a new floor tomorrow. She insisted that it was broken and that "when Daddy gets home, he will fix it." Satisfied with her understanding of the situation, Claire proceeded to climb the stairs. When she reached the top, she was astonished to see the gate at the top of the stairs was also missing. She looked confused, then said, "Hey, what's going on here?" I couldn't stop laughing long enough to answer her.

Then, she walked into her room, which was empty except for her bed. I could literally see her brain trying to process that discovery. She gazed silently at the empty place where her dresser used to be. Then, she looked around at her bare walls. Suddenly, a look of horror crossed her face. I knew exactly what she was thinking, but before I could say a word, she whipped around to the face the vacant spot her bookcase used to occupy and cried "My books! Hey, where did my books go?". Immediately, I knelt down to reassure her that we had just moved her books downstairs and offered to show her where they were. She looked relieved, and from that moment on, she has been perfectly happy and easy-going about all the change.

She really likes that all the furniture is out of her way, so she has lots of room to frolic upstairs. After the carpet was installed, she ran into the empty guest room and said, "This is my gymnastics room!"

She's also loved having the freedom to go up and down the stairs whenever she wants. She's really good on them and always holds onto the rails, so we're thinking of leaving the gates off for now. As long as she continues to be careful and doesn't start playing on the stairs, I'm trying to let go of my mommy worries and allow her some freedom. Plus, Josh really likes not having to deal with the gates any more, and even I can admit it makes it easier to carry laundry up and down the stairs.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised (once again) by how easily Claire deals with changes like this. I'm so thankful that she's flexible and can handle a little chaos because, frankly, life gets a little crazy around here sometimes (although most days, Claire is responsible for at least half the craziness at our house). :-)