At the beginning of May, we moved into our new house, and into our new neighborhood. I love our house – I feel very lucky to be here. But our new neighborhood definitely exceeds expectations. When we pulled up with our new keys to start moving in, this is what we found:

There’s a smiley face at the top, and “Welcome! Here” with balloons. If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.

We met many of the neighbors that day. We live on a cul-de-sac with several other families with small kids, who our kids play with regularly, and other families who seem to genuinely enjoy being surrounded by all the kids in the neighborhood.

Within our first two weeks of living here, we’d been to a neighborhood block party, neighbors had helped us move furniture, had watched the kids while we moved things, and made some friends ourselves.

At any given point, our kids might be across the street playing, or everyone might be in our yard playing. All us parents have commented to each other at various times “I remember being able to go outside and play all day with the neighborhood kids – I never thought my own kids would be able to do that nowadays, but they can in this neighborhood.” It truly is the neighbors who make this neighborhood so amazing to live in. I am grateful to be here!

During our first month here, my parents stayed with us to help get us settled, and we took them to Duke Gardens. Some photos of that:

Now, after another month (almost), Bob’s parents have come to stay for a few weeks until the baby is born (if he’s relatively on time), and then they’re going to Bob’s sister’s place in Charlotte, as she is due two weeks after I am. Here we are, belly-to-belly:

We have several of the same maternity dresses, so I should have changed into mine that is the same, but alas, costume changes are cumbersome at this stage.