The End of a Chapter

This is our final week in New York.  It is bittersweet to say goodbye, I have fallen in love with this city.  Would I stay if I could?  For sure.  I love it here, just love it.

Over the last couple of weeks, Brian and I have done a lot of reminiscing about our time just before we moved and all our thoughts and anxieties we had about moving to the city.  Neither of us had ever lived in the city so we really had no idea what to expect.  But we ended up in a wonderful neighborhood, Battery Park City, which is a perfect fit of us and our family.

Here are some of our thoughts from our time here:

Boot Camp- For the last 2 years I have been getting up for a 5:30am workout 3 times a week and I LOVE IT!  The workouts have been amazing and the sunrises spectacular.  You can't workout with the same women for the past 2 years and not be friends.  But it is a funny friendship because when we pass each other on the sidewalks later in the day we always do a double take.  We don't recognize each other all dolled up without our workout clothes on.  I will miss those women and our amazing trainer.

Elevators - Before moving to the city I had not thought much about elevators but they are a big part of my life in the city.  We spend a lot of time in them.  The elevators are a great place to get to know your neighbors and chat a bit each day about what is going on.   They have provided countless opportunities for me to teach my girls about what are appropriate questions to ask other people and what are things you don't ask.   At times the elevators in our building are so full of people it is like a clown car when we pour out on the ground level.  My girls still argue about who gets to push the buttons, it ever gets old.  Our building only has two elevators and when someone is moving in or out only one elevator is available for everyone else to use.  This results in long waits for the elevator, which at times makes me late for school pick up, it is the city version of traffic for me.

The Parks- Simply amazing.  We live withing 2 blocks of 5 different parks. They always provide instant play dates for the girls.  It is rare that we go to a park and don't know someone there.  I love that they are completely fenced in and that the swings always have their own area.  During May, the question of the month is "is the water turned on yet?"  Everyone wants to know which parks have turned on their spray areas and which have not.  I often feel like I live at the beach in the summer months with the combination of water and sand.  Our apartment always has a bit of sand that the girls have tracked in.  Sometimes I feel like we live at the park, it is not usually for me to spend 3-4 hours a day at the park.

Nannies - I have seen so many nannies during my time here.  What I have come to learn is that good nannies are out there but you have to work to find them.  In our time here there have only been two nannies that I have met that I would have felt comfortable watching my girls and parenting them on a daily basis. I have met plenty of nannies that I think are fine occasional babysitters but a full time nanny has a very different job in my mind.  There are few nannies that I seen that are actually doing the nanny job well.

Dogs - They are every where here in our neighborhood and I just don't get it.  It is down right gross at times, lots of times. But they are not allowed on the grass at the parks, which I love and they are not allowed in the playgrounds, which I love.   Also, there are park rangers that enforce these rules, which I love.  So I can't complain too much.

Doormen and Porters -  Before moving to the city I had not had much experience with doormen or porters.  Once I got use to the idea I came to realize how great they are.  The staff in our building are really nice and I have enjoyed getting to know them.  They are always there to greet you when you come back to the building and are always willing to help you out any way they can.  They change the feel of the building and make it have much more of a family/community feel to it.

Lower Manhattan Community Church - We have loved our church.  It is full of families with young children.  Our first year here Brian and I were in different community groups, so that one of us was always at home with the girls.  But this past year we hosted one in our apartment.   We would put the girls to bed at 7 and the group started at 7:30 it worked out perfectly.  I love being in a group with Brian again, and loved getting to know the other people in our group.  We will miss seeing them every Monday night, it was sad to say goodbye.

Our Apartment - 2 bedroom, 2 bath and less than 1000 sq ft but just perfect for us. I love our little apartment.  It takes me no time to clean it and it is never very far to return anything to where it goes.  It is tight when we have visitors but we made it work, no one had to stay in a hotel :)  I have loved the city views, that will be something I will greatly miss.  I am looking forward to being in a cooler place, the apartment is constantly warm.  I like to sleep with it cold and one time this past December I ran the AC at night, it is always warm in the apartment. I think we may have only used the heat a total of three times in the past 2 years.  Since we have such a small space we can not accumulate things, life is simpler in that sense.

Subways, taxis, scooters and walking - Love, love, love and love.  It will be hard to adjust spending so much time in the car.  I love walking.  The other day Rachel had a play date downtown.  She walked the mile to get there and then the mile home.  Both girls can walk, although Luna is still not a fan.  It never grew on her, one of the things she is looking forward to in WA is not having to walk every where. :)

Over the past two years the city has become my home, it is where I feel comfortable.  I know I will always look back at this chapter in our lives longingly.  It has been a life changing two years for us and one I would do again in a heart beat.   Thank You God for the blessing of these past two years, we were completely undeserving and feel so blessed to have had this experience.

Goodbye for now NYC!

More Funny Things Said

Rachel was wearing a pair of my high heel shoes.  She was walking around and they were making the click click noise as she stepped.  She looked at me and said "I like the way they sing."  I smiled and looked at her and asked "sing?"  She took a few more steps to make the click click noise and said "See, they sing."

Not sure if you know the song "I am sexy and I know it."  I don't love the fact that Luna has heard this song a few times.  But this is how she sings it "I am sixty and I know it."   Another song goes "hey sexy lady" but Luna sings it "Hey sixty eighty."  So innocent :)

On a cold and extremely windy spring day, Luna, Rachel and I are walking along a path through tear drop park.  There is no one else walking on the path but the three of us.  Rachel looks at me and says "I am scared."  I ask her why she is scared and she answers "because we are all alone."  I respond by saying "no you are not, I am here with you."  She says "I am scared because no else is here."  I  clarify by asking her "you are scared because there is no one else but Luna, you and me walking on the path?"  She says "yes."  Such a city kid, we finally have some space all to ourselves and she is scared!

At dinner, Rachel ask "what is brown and strong?"  Brian says "a bear."  Rachel said "yes."  Then Luna pipes in "and me."  We all got a chuckle out of that one.

One day we were playing in the park.  The park staff put a bunch of kids toys out on the grass for all the kids to play with.  Below is a picture of Rachel playing on one of the toys.

Luna was trying to move two of these half circle toys across the park to where we were sitting.  Brian and I are sitting watching Luna and Rachel and see this woman walking across the park toward us carrying one of these half circles.  We ask her "did she ask you to carry that over here?"  The woman says "yes."  We all laugh, Luna is still on the other side of the park trying to get the other half circle over to us.  As the women leaves she said "that girl is going places."

We have just gotten into the car.  This is the girl's first time in the car and in carseats in 5 months.  Brian speeds up and from the back seat Rachel yells "Woohoo" with her fist raised in the air.  (Let's see how long those feelings last).

We had just drove from NYC up to Massachusetts and headed directly to our old church in Framingham for a picnic with friends.  When I pulled into the church parking lot, Luna asks "why did they build a church in the middle of the forest?"  To which Daddy said "see this is why we have to get them out of the city!"