The first week...

We moved from Tampa, FL to Bay Ridge (Brooklyn, NY) a week ago today. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I have 2 toddlers? Mackenzie is 2 1/2 and Jackson is 18 months. Ok, so maybe the second floor of a two-family home wasn't the best idea, especially when my son's legs are shorter than the rise of the stairs. We're managing, though. We were able to cram most of our 2,800sqft house into our less-than 1,200sqft apartment. The couch was too large to fit through the door, but the rest made it up the stairs. We're almost completely unpacked and even have a small pile of I-don't-really-want-to-toss-it-but-we-have-nowhere-to-stick-it. Most people would call it trash, however, we opted for the more artsy approach. Brian's old surround sound stereo equipment was stacked in the corner, so I threw a tablecloth over it and a statue of the Virgin Mary on top. Nice! The rest of it is probably just waiting for one of us to walk it down with next bag of trash, but we're too busy enjoying the good things here.

Between our house and the house next door (both are two-family homes), there are eight kids under the age of three. We hear babies crying all the time and wonder if it's one of ours, one of theirs, or that whole seashell ("my house always sounds like crying babies, even when everyone is asleep") phenomenon that happens when you have kids. It's not that all the kids are loud, it's that the weather has been AMAZING this week and everyone's windows have been open.

In the first week, we've managed to:

Make it into the city...

• The kids rode the subway and bus for the first time.
• We had a picnic in Central Park.
• We realized that the horse-drawn carraige rides through CP are $50/20 minutes. That left us wondering if they give you the option of paying through the nose to get back to the starting point, or just handing you a map and a rabbit's foot and drop you off wherever you are when the time runs out.
• The kids danced on the big piano at FAO Schwarz (next time, I'm joining them).

Find out about schools/other education...

• The public elementary school that's a 1/2 a block away teaches the kindergartners how to play the violin. We keep hearing, "Don't waste your money on the private schools if you're kids are zoned for PS185." I still need to do some more research, but I like the sound of the ching-ching in my pocket better than than ching-ching falling into someone else's.
• The kids start music classes next month.
• The library gives you a free book through some federal grant for every 3rd story time you attend. We went today. A guy in a bright red shirt, skinny jeans, and black converse sang silly songs. It was good.
• Fine art classes are offered down the street for kids 3 and up.

Take lots of walks

• To the park
• To the other park
• To the other, other park
• To the other, other, other park that has a water feature during the summer. My kids were the ones in regular clothes, sneakers, and socks. "I'm from out of town, I didn't know." <--- That was typed in my new Brooklyn accent.
• To the local botanical gardens to see the butterflies and turtles. We never found the turtles, and I made the mistake of mentioning cupcakes while we were there, so Mackenzie was "over it" faster than she would have been had I kept my mouth shut
• To the cupcake shop. OH. MY. GOD. Homemade oatmeal cream pies with homemade marshmallow goopie. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! Can't you just hear the angels singing? Plus, they have Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite in glass bottles. How cool.
• To the deli.
• To the deli again.
• To the library.
• Down Shore Road just to walk along the water. By the way, those signs are real.
• To the house from the car repair shop.

Get used to living in an old house... sort of.

• I've blown the fuse in the kitchen four times this week. Or, is it five? It wouldn't be that big of a deal except that the landlord lives below us and we have to ask him to go down to his basement and flip the breaker.
• I'm only allowed to run ONE of the following devices at the same time: washer, dryer, dishwasher, microwave, toaster, George Forman grill, electric skillet, coffee pot. If I fail to follow this rule, Mr. Landlord has to go visit Mr. Basement... again. Oh, and Mr. Brian gives me that look... again.
• We have no stove. Ok, not forever, just not right now. It's supposed to be here tomorrow. It was also supposed to be here on Monday, and Saturday before that. I'm not complaining. The landlord let us move in 4 days early and didn't charge us for them. So, the way I look at it, if my stove arrives 4 days after we were supposed to move in, we're even.

So far, life in the not-so-big city is good. The neighborhood seems homey, and the real big city is just a 30-minute train ride away. Plus, pushing the stroller up and down these hills for a few miles each day guarantees that I get to forgo the gym membership... for now. I'm sure that marshmallow goopie and all the Italian restaurants will even things out.