Change

“True life is lived when tiny changes occur.” – Tolstoy

New baby, new big brother, new parents, and a coming New Year, so maybe the changes aren’t so tiny.

I do love change. I love Christmas because it means a coming New Year. I love new challenges and new places. One of the reasons Nate and I don’t have a house and live in our apartment is that our apartment is impermanent. Sure, we’ve lived in the same building for 11 years, but there is something comforting to me about being able to “move at any moment.” Granted we’ve had the opportunity to move and passed numerous times, but I still could without really much of a hassle.

We are hoping to buy a house this year – just plain running out of space with two kids and 11 years worth of “stuff.” Memories…I guess you call them. Or junk.

We’ll need to find some kind of compromise place in Milwaukee, because I’m not ready to move off the East Side. I’m not ready to leave my lake view. I’m not ready to leave our parks, our lakefront, our museums, and our coffee shops. I’m not ready to leave the city. I grew up in the country. I grew up in the woods. You’d think I would have loved it, but I love this much more.

I love that Fynn gets on the elevator and yells, “All aboard!” I’m not sure how much our neighbors love it, but they haven’t complained. I love that Fynn and Mia are within 5 minutes from 2 children’s museums, an art museum, and the public museum. I love that they are within 5 minutes from Central Library and its architecture and awesome children’s room. I love that we are within walking distance from Lake Michigan – or that we can see it every single day from our giant east-facing windows – well, unless we’re fogged in, but then we can hear the fog horns.

I know we don’t have a lot of space, but Fynn and Mia aren’t ready for space. As I type this, Fynn is playing next to me on our ottoman, and Mia is playing in her gym inches from me. We just like to be together right now. I love being able to reach over and give them a squeeze. Our playroom is our living room and I love it (everything except the clutter, but kids are messy).

The other day I was feeling guilty about urban living, about having children in a city. Then we walked into the apartment and Fynn said, “This is my house. I love my house.” I guess we bloom where we’re planted. I’m sure he’ll love the next place too, but I hope he always remembers living here. I hope he always remembers being a city kid.

I hope he always remembers our circa-1935 elevators that everyone is afraid to ride, except him.

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5 Responses to Change

  1. Kate says:

    Change the exact amenities and the view from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River and St. Paairports and you’d have the same from me, excep twe’ve only been here 1.5 years. And hubs wants to move to “the country” to have a massive garden and chickens and goats. Alth’ough I’m sure eventually I’ll come to like it, the city is where I find my heart.

    Ironically, it was the hubs that told me to read this post today, telling me that I would be encouraged…and it is lovely to have someone else with2 small children who also appreciates the city.

    The elevator has done wonders for their counting abilities, both up and back from 12, the top floor in our building.

  2. Kate says:

    Please forgive the typos, this plugin and my phone don’t get along.

  3. erin says:

    I’m glad you appreciate your urban life, too. There are things I loved about living in the country, but things I hated. I always felt alone in the country. We didn’t have any neighbors, so it was tough as a little kid. I SO wanted neighbors and kids to play with. Fynn makes friends everywhere. It’s awesome.

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