City Girl

This afternoon I went for a walk in our neighborhood with Lauren in tow in her stroller. We walked along Broadway for most of the time, where there was a lot of activity since the weather was beautiful today. The sidewalk cafes were packed with restaurant goers, there were many, diverse people from the neighborhood out for a walk, a few convertibles drove by with their tops down and music blaring, a fire truck sped by with its sirens on... it was a true city experience and Lauren just calmly took it all in.

Dan and I love living in a city where there is lots to do and we especially love being able to walk to restaurants, shops, the park, etc. We use our car at most about once a week. We may not always live in a big city, but for now, we love it and for Lauren "city life" is her home.

Earlier this week, there was a hilarious thread on one of my Chicago parent networks. The title of the thread was "I know my child is a city kid because..." and more than 100 parents chimed in with pretty funny examples of things their kids have said or done that make you step back and realize that they are true city kids. A few of my favorites:

When we were on a rural Southern (as in Texas) road traveling between towns at night, my 2 yo dd asked "where'd all the cars go?" It had never occurred to me that she'd never seen a completely empty road!

We were returning from a weekend visiting friends who live outside Madison, Wisconsin on a couple of acres. I was feeling a little guilty about living in the city, especially since my than 5 year old had spent the entire weekend outside running, swimming, playing etc all in their backyard. My guilt was quickly replaced with a smile as we were on the Kennedy and the Chicago Skyline comes into view and my dd says "Ahhhh, buildings."

I was singing "Frere Jacques", and when I got to the part that goes "ding ding dong" my 2.5 year old DS said "ding dong, doors closing!"