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10.30.2011

NAT NESTS: MOVING OUT/MOVING IN



it's been a whirlwind weekend indeed, sir! 

we packed all our belongings , u-hauled them across the way, then unpacked like crazy until we collapsed in an exhausted pile at the end of the night. 24 hours of packing and unpacking, and my lips are SO CHAPPED.

as soon as our last box was emptied and put away, it started to snow.


at one point during the afternoon the cable guy was setting up the internet while the a/c guys were testing the a/c units, while the super was explaining the washer/dryer to me, while brandon and the maintenance guys from our old building moved everything in, and i momentarily froze wondering, "where is my baby?!?" but then i remembered he was in the kitchen, napping in his stroller.

and then i laughed--my kitchen is now a thing you can go into! with a stroller! 



on friday night we trudged back up the eight blocks to sweep one last time, hand over the keys, and say our last goodbyes.

it was kind of bittersweet i tell you what.

with the place all empty like that, it looked just like it did the day i found it.

i was hugely pregnant, exhausted from running all over the city in the humid august heat, and i had looked at so many awful places that this tiny place seemed like a regal palace.
clean. quaint. and cute as the day is long.
and TINY. but perfect. 


so much life happened in that tiny apartment on central park west.
we brought our brand new baby home there.
i felt a little sad to leave it behind.

so i touched all the walls and looked out all the windows one last time.
i said goodbye to the sloping hardwoods that used to make brandon dizzy,
and to the miniature oven that wouldn't even accommodate a cookie sheet,
and to the sunlit bedroom, and to the mary poppins rooftop views.

i said goodbye to huck's little bedroom, now just a sad, empty closet,
and then last of all i said goodbye to that delicious, minty green bathroom.
oh i'm going to miss that minty green bathroom.

and then, softly, we shut the door behind us, and made our way home.

21 comments:

  1. Great! I'm so happy for you.

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  2. I can relate to this post so much, we are about to move and I have such mixed feelings. So excited yet a tinge of sweet sadness, I birthed my daughter in the home and it is so hard to leave. xoxo


    http://freespiritedtmama.blogspot.com/

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  3. I love the way you take bittersweet things that some people don't understand or might find foolish and put them into beautiful words. You really are Anne Shirley.

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  4. Awesome pictures of Huck crawling on the huuuuge floor, and holding the keys in your kitchen. I especially like the keys one - simple, but effective.

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  5. Okay Nat the Fat Rat. I just have to say that I've been reading you for a long time and I am just now commenting (what can I say, I am incredibly lazy). But I LOVE your blog and your writing and I daresay I love you, even though we've never met. I also have a baby nearly Huck's exact age (he turns 1 on Tuesday! teardrop) and it also must be noted that I L-O-V-E this post; it is what actually made me come out of the interweb to say 'hello' this fine evening. SO yes..... I'm a regular. I hope you love your new home, it looks rather fabulous.

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  6. That last sentence is pure perfection!

    Congratulations on the acquisition of a washer/dryer. It is the New York Dream, isn't it?

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  7. Oh Natalie! I feel like we are kindred spirits. Our lives have so many parallels like infertility, husbands in law school, husbands taking the bar, finding the tiny/perfect apartment after days of no luck, being pregnant and giving birth to a tiny miracle, and now moving! I just moved from east Long Beach to north Orange County. I just purchased our first refrigerator and I also have chapped lips! I also had that moment where I wondered where my baby was. She was sitting quietly in the middle of the empty dining room floor eating the remainders of a 32 oz container of yogurt. Tomorrow is our final cleaning inspection and I will also be touching the walls and looking out every window. I'm leaving the home where I learned to be a mother. Every space has it's sweet memories. I just moved 5 miles away, but it seems worlds away! Knowing I'm not the only one feeling nostalgic makes it more bareable. You're great.

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  8. What a wonderful new adventure! And that last picture is stunning. :)

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  9. i look forward to the day that i get to move into a bigger and better apartment, too! especially having a baby that doesn't stop moving - the more space the better :)
    Smoking Crayolas Blogspot

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  10. yeah, it will be bittersweet to leave this apartment when i move, just as it's been in the past. i can't wait to hear about the memories you make in your new one!

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  11. Ah, moving! It's so bittersweet. My condolences and congratulations!

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  12. i get so sentimental about everything, that moving days always make me want to cry. even when i'm not the one moving. but that fridge full of diet pepsi looked pretty awesome lol.

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  13. Congratulations on your new place!!!

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  14. HOLYCOWLOOKATYOURWASHERANDDRYER!!!!

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  15. aww bye little apartment. but great things to come and more memories to make in the new one! I too get a little sad when we leave a place and move to the next. a new chapter.

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  16. oh! moving is SO bittersweet. my heart always regrets not having a year or two in a miniature manhattan home! oh, i love it!

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  17. I'm SO excited for you new place, change is always good. Can't wait for more pictures!

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  18. I've moved six times in seven years, and no matter how disgusting/inconvenient/tiny the apartment was, I'd get horribly attached and cry when we'd walk out the door that last time. It's so hard to put down roots and make a "house" a home, and the harder you work to make a place feel homey, the harder it is to leave! (Except when you're faced with the daunting task of making your sister's old bedroom your "home" for six months--you'll be singing all the way to the moving van, I tell you, even if that moving van is headed back to Utah!) Actually, I cried when I found out we wee moving back to Utah--our other choice was San Francisco, and it fell through. MAJOR tears. Good luck in your new place! Making yourself at home in a new place is SO MUCH FUN!!!

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  19. I'm so excited to see more pics of the new apartment. I know Huck will appreciate the extra space... and you too! This post makes me excited to move into our new home at the end of the month. :)

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  20. Oh, so sweet

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  21. I like this post :) It touches that part of my heart that I've left behind at every place I've lived over the last two years of moving. (six places. yeah...)

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