Lasts

A few minutes ago, as I prepared to take a shower, I did a little jig in the shower room (There is no tub. There is no toilet. There is a shower (and a sink)! Hence: shower room).  'This is the LAST TIME I have to take a shower in this shower room!' I said to myself.  It's not like the shower is completely horrible or even horrible at all. Our landlords renovated it while we were living here so it's high quality and has good water pressure, but, for people of our proportions, it's small.  When I shower, I have to make sure that I don't make any sudden movements or I'll crash into the wall with my elbows.  And forget two people being in there at once.  Over the past five and a half years, Jim and I have gotten into the annoying habit of racing each other into the bathroom. Whoever doesn't get there first stands cursing outside of the door.

Anyway, the small joy I felt at not having to shower in our tiny shower anymore led me to think of other lasts that I'm either looking forward to or not.  Here they are:

This is the last night  we'll sleep under our crazy neighbor. She is loud, she stomps, she is volatile, she has made enemies of everyone in the building (except us. The only reason is because we live under her) and we sometimes have to turn our TV up so that we can hear it over her radio upstairs.  She also has been very nice to our children.  So that redeems her, slightly.  I will still be happy to be the ones doing the stomping in our new house!

The last bath. The girls have lived here their whole lives. I have bathed them since birth in their little (cursed and too small for normal sized human beings) tub. It has been the site of much terror (when they were babies), crazy soap hair styles, bubble blowing, hysterical laughter, tsunami-like splashing and, now, independence.  Evie prefers to give herself a bath these days, but tonight she agreed that I could wash her hair one last time before we move.

The last bedtime. We have a bedtime routine that we've been following for years and tonight was no exception.  After bath and teeth and bathroom, each girl picks a book, we snuggle up in Millie's bed and we read.  Then we kiss and hug and butterfly kiss and squishy kiss and I lie in Millie's bed with her for a few minutes before they go to sleep. It's a nice way for us all to end the day and tonight was the last time we'll have that time in this flat.

This is the last time we'll ever have white tiles and white counter tops (if I have anything to do with it)!  We are four not so compulsive types (and a cat) living in a house with white tiles. They are frequently splattered with food, footprints, cat prints, dirt from the garden and other things that wouldn't show up quite so much if we didn't have white tiles.  Therefore, I rejoice at the thought of the ugly linoleum tiles in our new kitchen.  They might be ugly, but at least you can't see just how filthy they are!

Yesterday was the last time it will be easy for either of us to get to work (in our current jobs).  I am so not looking forward to our new commute that I can't even write about it.

Oh, but despite the small shower and the crazy neighbor and the white tiles, this has been a happy home for us and we're really going to miss it and Hampstead. Tomorrow we'll start fresh in our new house and when we have internet again in a week I'll be able to compare neighbors, showers, bedtimes and bath times.  Stay tuned...