It is so hard to believe that come October, the 30th to be exact, we have lived in this house for 6 years! Being two kids in our early twenties fresh out of college we never pictured ourselves living in this three story, three bedroom townhouse with a baby. We always said we’d move out of here before we started a family and we did come pretty darn close right before I got pregnant with Leanne. Now there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about how truly grateful I am that we decided to stay put!
It is funny how you can live someplace for so long without ever really knowing your neighbors. Our neighborhood is a mix of people - married, single, with kids, without kids, old, young. Everyone pretty much kept to themselves, and we never really knew that we had anything in common with any of these people. Sure we’d get a friendly wave (from most) as we took our after dinner Sunday stroll, but that was pretty much the extent of communication on the block.
That has all pretty much changed over the past year or so. With four new babies arriving within three months of each other the neighborhood, and our relationship with our neighbors, has taken a nice turn. On Friday nights after all the kids are in bed our Court gets that “college campus” feel. Everyone gathers across the street, has a few beers, plays a few games and just hangs out until (sometimes) the wee hours of the morning.
In the span of 11 months we’ve actually become friendly with our neighbors and I love it! One of the things I really cherished about growing up both in NJ and PA is that closeness we had with our neighbors. In fact, my oldest friend, Molly, lived across the street from me in NJ. We met when I was about a year and half, lived across the street from each other until I was nine and have remained friends over the twenty years since.
One of the cool things about this neighborhood and the friendships that we are developing is that Leanne has the opportunity to literally grow up with life long friendships that began when she was only a few months old.
Those days of playing across the street were great, weren’t they? You two are very lucky that you live in a nice neighborhood where you have made friends, especially ones with children around the same age, who will hopefully eventually become Leanne’s lifelong friends, the ones she will cherish.
June 27, 2008