Apartment Living

There are things I really like about living in an apartment. It is convenient to be able to just call someone when anything breaks. And it is great not to have to mow the lawn or rake leaves! But I've been thinking a lot over the past few months how much simpler life with a newborn would be in a house.

For one, it would be great to have the car directly out the front door and not have to lug his carseat up to the third floor, especially when I also have groceries or other things. It would also be nice to be able to do laundry without needing both of us home, an uninterrupted 4-hour block, and rolls of quarters.

But really what makes me dream of a house is the noise issue. Our neighbors are great, don't get me wrong. In fact, between good neighbors and pretty thick walls, this apartment is about as quiet as an apartment can be. (Nothing like our apartments in the city where Joe and I could talk to each other through the floors/ceilings.) However, Nicholas' nursery is over the stairwell and so when people open and close their apartment doors or walk up and down the stairs late at night, it startles him. And the girl next door practices the piano in the room that borders his nursery. And some of the kids play in the grass in front of the building, meaning outside our windows. And none of them are doing anything wrong. If somone was playing the piano at midnight or people were screaming in the hallway, I could complain, but playing the piano at 7:30 in the evening is perfectly reasonable and closing your apartment door when you come home at midnight is necessary. But both make it hard for Nicholas to sleep.

And then there is the noise within our apartment. When he is in bed we are basically isolated in our room because it is the only place far enough away and with a door to muffle noise. Tonight I didn't get around to eating dinner before he went to bed and almost had cereal because I was scared to use the microwave or toaster oven. (Luckily I realized that if I used the oven function instead of the toast function on the toaster oven it wouldn't make the stupid ding.)

What is bringing these thoughts to the front of my mind right now is thinking about this coming weekend. We'll have a lot of company in town for his baptism and there is no way to have people over while he naps, unless we want to pile the whole extended family into our bedroom and mandate whispers.

Ah, the joys of apartment living.