The Budding Family Story
 Renee
Raab Whitcombe is a former advertising agency producer and
executive who realized she was really dense just at the end of her
second pregnancy.
Wow! Really dense, huh?
Listen to this: in May, 2000, Renee, her husband Mike and their
17 month old daughter Alex moved from Southern California to Sagamore
Hills, OH for a 2 year assignment for Mike's work. At the time,
Renee was 6 months pregnant and thought this would be a terrifically
luxurious maternity leave (dense) and a great chance to bond with
Alex, who had been living the Life of Riley with her nanny up until
the move. Let's not leave out the part about how the family left
a neighborhood full of family and friends and sunny weather to go
2500 miles to a neighborhood full of strangers (dense) and really
wacky weather. (Ouch! Very dense)
There's more.
Renee and Alex spent the summer pursuing a mission to find a great
book that would explain to Alex what it means to become a Big
Sister. They canvassed all of Cleveland and the Internet,
scouring every bookstore, library and gift boutique. They bought
and borrowed lots of books about other families expecting a baby.
Finally, on August 29, 2000, Alex became a Big
Sister. Her grandmother ("Mimi") drove her to University
Hospital to meet the baby, and she took one look at her new sister,
paused, and said "cool bed, Mom." She proceeded to press every
button on the cool hospital bed, ate her snack and returned home.
She didn't say so much as hi or goodbye to little Sydney.
 About
5 minutes later, Renee stopped being SO DENSE.
After 3 months of racking her brain, trying to travel through the
prismatic, 'Rubik's Cube-ish' toddler thought process, she had an
epiphany. All those books -- the ones they read 15 and 20
times each -- were about Arthur's family and Jenny's Mommy and George's
friend's family and Susie's aunt. None of them were about
ALEX.
So right there in the hospital, Renee wrote Look
who's going to be a Big Sister.
And even though it wasn't full of laminated pocket pages,
insert cards and instructions -- YET -- she knew she was coming
home from the hospital with two new babies to nurture and
introduce to the world.
Three years later…when Renee was barely dense at all, Mike's
job moved the family back to California. Having learned a
thing or two about kids, Renee knew just how to get Alex and
Sydney through the relocation. Immediately, she began to write
LOOK WHO'S MOVING TO NEW HOME
as the solution to guiding her young school-age daughters
through the entire moving process.
Created in consultation with New York-based psychologist Susan
Bartell, LOOK WHO'S MOVING TO A NEW HOME
recognizes the range of emotions (sad, excited, worried) children
experience during a move, and explains the logistical and timing
concerns as well (can I take my stuff? How will our things get to
our new home? How long will it take?)
Even today, Alex loves to re-read and linger over her Big
Sister story, visiting a time she doesn't vividly remember
but confirming her important role in the family.
And both sisters enjoy browsing through the treasured memories
of Ohio friends, neighbors, school and the old house after they
resettled into a new home in California, with new friends, neighbors
and schools where they have connected and feel once again like they
belong.
Angelique Thermes Martin is a graphic artist residing
in Los Angeles, CA.
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