By JESSICA WAYNE

An eight-person, choreographed waltz straight out of a Dr. Seuss book is what Saturday’s experience of helping some friends pack and move resembled.

Figuring this was just another run-of-the-mill, transfer of stuff from point A to point B, I agreed to help my friends move to their new home.

When I arrived at the house to help them pack, it was obvious this experience was going to be anything but run-of-the-mill.

There were half-packed and full boxes jumbled together in the kitchen, odd-shaped toys to be packed, furniture to be moved downstairs, combined with the necessity of exact science required to pack the contents of a house into one U-haul.

Then there were the children. A 2-year-old and an 8-year-old who were determined to help and had no fear of being crushed by furniture or adults.

This complicated waltz, while amusing, had the appearance of a dance recital gone terribly wrong.

In addition to moving furniture and having a small skirmish with an inflatable punching bag, I found myself dodging children and adults, an ornery couch determined to trip me and a staircase I’m positive kept increasing in steps.

After packing and loading our caravan, we proceeded to the new house and the real test of coordination commenced. This house contained another magical staircase that seemed to add and subtract steps at random.

Seeing all the helter-skelter and stop-and-go of everyone reminded me of Dr. Seuss’ “Be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that life’s a great balancing act.”

For those of you familiar with Dr. Seuss, I seriously doubt a tower of turtles or stack of hats could rival some of the balancing feats we performed while moving.

By the end of the day the majority of stuff was unpacked and scattered randomly throughout the house, and the 8-year-old could not understand why she could not hang pictures. The 2-year-old, racing a cart through the house, kept saying he wanted to ride in the “big truck” again.

Seeing that energy and excitement after such an exhausting day was a little depressing. Of course, to those children, the day had been an exciting adventure and their mentality at the close of the workday echoed Dr. Seuss, “Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”

The next time you or someone you know considers moving, I suggest having children present. Your coordination skills and patience will truly be put to the test and you will find out all sorts of useful information, such as how many times a child can run under a couch that’s being carried out the door, how long it takes to toss 20 stuffed animals down the stairs, and how many items you can load in a U-haul before the children find some way to crawl back inside. The children showed us the answers to these and thousands more improbable occurrences Saturday.

As a result, I learned the best way to deal with a chaotic situation is to laugh and watch the children. They will teach you how to enjoy yourself in crazy situations. This experience was the adventure of a lifetime and I would not trade a moment of that waltz for anything. Maybe next time, I’ll try running under the couch.