Some Thoughts on a New Place

Madeline is absolutely delighted with our new place, as are we. For the first week we were here, she couldn't stop running around shouting, "New!" She still does it when we pull up in front of the house. We moved into our former neighborhood, so we have the luxury of being in a familiar area and near old acquaintances and friends. That feels especially nice after moving around for eight months--although there was a huge turnover in our ward, so we're sort of half-new.

Also, it is amazing to be in a house on so many levels. The top reason for that right now is probably just that: there is more than one level. The basement is completely unfinished aside from an area I like to call "the shanty bathroom," but it's a basement! And that means tons of storage space, something I've never experienced in my own place. Seriously, it's amazing. Don't need this box right now? To the basement!

The very best part, though, is that since we don't have any basement trolls living downstairs, Madeline can run and stomp and dance to her heart's content when we're upstairs and NO ONE CARES. I love it. In D.C., the neighbors downstairs got pretty feisty and ending up banging on the ceiling a lot, sometimes even when Madeline was just walking from one place to another. It was stressful and made me realize that I'm not a good person at heart, because my first impulse was to stomp back (conquered it) and then my second impulse was to simply stop caring if we were loud because I could only do so much to make a toddler slow down (didn't conquer that one, unfortunately).

Anyway, my point is that it's sooooo nice to just relax and make as much noise as we want. And when warmer weather arrives, we're going to love having a yard and a garden and being really close to the park. For now, Madeline and I are going on fun outings to the Bean museum and the library, Dave is working and schooling, and I'm trying desperately to get everything unpacked so we can move our extra couch to the back room and make space in the living room for our piano to come back home. Right now the living room looks like a sophomore college guys' apartment (because of all the seating), but hopefully that won't last too much longer.

The end.