the east

I spent today at Judith's house in Issaquah, hanging out with Auntie Cookie and Annie, going to Costco, going to Starbucks, shopping her closet, and generally schlumping around. I think it was Benjamin's first Costco trip, and Annie rode in the back seat with him and entertained him. We have told her it is her job to pass on all of the wisdom her big siblings gave her. I cleverly left when it started to snow, thereby escaping my prescribed treadmill time. Mwah ha ha. Anyway, the whole day was sooooo much fun. Why have I not been doing this every day of my leave? Pretty lame really. But it brings up a recurring discussion in our house about the possible benefits of moving to the eastside, and one house on one street in particular. They include:

• new construction house
  
• large greenbelt lot with sunny fenced yard
  
• quiet street with playground
  
• nice neighbors offering free daycare
  
• proximity to hiking, general outdoorsyness
  
• lower house payment
  
• good public schools
  

On the downside we have some equally compelling arguements. Most notably commute time, and my generally snobby attitude that Seattle is superior to the east side. This is really agonizing for me, since I would really love to be neighbors with my big sis, and have a house that needed no improvements, no projecting, and had a sunny back yard. And raise the boy with his cousins, and his grandparents, who would inevitably move there if we did. But I also love my neighborhood, my easy commute, my proximity to tons of cool stuff. So I don't know what to do. For the moment the answer is to do nothing, especially since the house in question seems to have sold. But I do like to day dream about it.

In other news, we toured the Wallingford Child Care Center this morning. I don't know why I bother. The places are all the same. Seem very nice, teacher ratios, emergent play curriculum, peanut free, blah blah blah, 1-2 year waiting lists. But its in the neighborhood, and we are on the list. Made for an outing anyway.