Our ds was exactly 26 months when we moved. Handled the big day with the van and movers etc. by having his grandparents look after him for the day at their house and do fun stuff with him. They met us at the apartment after most of the stuff had been moved in. This may not be an option for you, but maybe you can get a friend or hire someone for the most intense part of actually moving. We knew he would be very excited by seeing the movers do their work and would possibly get in the way which would be dangerous and also we needed our attention to be undivided because it turned out that a lot of supervision is required when you hire movers. The packing up the weeks before was tough because of course they can sense that something big is going on, that you are tense, etc. We talked about it a fair amount. We moved to another borough in the same city, so not so far away. We stressed that he would see a lot of the same people. Luckily his part-time babysitter was able to come to where we moved so that provided a lot of continuity. One thing that drove me slightly crazy was that that is the age at which they LOVE to put things in and out of boxes so I'd have an open box and I'd put stuff in it, then turn around to do something else, turn back to the box to see he'd taken the stuff out. It was sort of a game. But it took twice as long to pack so budget yourself more time than usual for it! We didn't pack up his favorite toys/stuff but took them in the car and when we got to the new apartment, had them ready for him right away. We decided as an experiment to put his toddler bed in his room and try him sleeping in that right away, the first night in the new place. (He had been sleeping in his toddler bed pushed next to ours previously and had been coming into our bed for part of the night.) I thought it might be too much; new place, sleeping by himself in a different room for the first time, but interestingly, he accepted it right away, I guess as all part of the newness of things. He did however, come into our bed for part of the night and still (he's 3 now) comes into our bed for morning snuggle. Good luck! I think it depends on a child's particular personality, but in general, at this age, they're very adaptable. We were thrilled to be moving (much bigger, nicer place) so perhaps that was something he picked up on. And we moved next to a playground which we emphasized a lot when talking about where we were moving to and he loves. The day we moved we played in it or a long time, after we got the stuff in, and he realized that it was practically his back yard.
