Part 1 of this series was about how our little family ended up living in North Toronto. Basically, it was pure luck. But we didn’t have any idea how lucky we really were until Cole and Alannah were born.

Finding out we were going to have twins was a bit of a shock. There weren’t any other twins that we knew of in either of our families. I didn’t know what to expect except that my life was about to change drastically.

Walking around the neighbourhood when Katherine was pregnant had a very soothing effect on me. We saw so many families with twins that I was able to tell myself “If all these people can do it, I can do it, too.” (Katherine didn’t need soothing. She wasn’t as nervous as me.) Many of these people were really helpful and offered all sorts of suggestions and tips. Like I said before, the people of North Toronto are really, really nice.

I still recall the one conversation that put me totally at ease. I was cold calling one afternoon and reached someone about my age that lived on Woburn. We were talking about real estate when he slipped in a reference to his newborn triplets. That ended the real estate part of our conversation. After he spent some time telling me what it was like to have triplets and how things were working out okay, I realized that things would be okay for us, too. After all, we were just having twins. Funnily enough, Cole is now friends with one of his sons. That’s the way things go in North Toronto. It’s a small community in the centre of a large city.

One of the best things about North Toronto is that there are tons of kids around and loads of things for them to do. You might hear kids whine “Mom/Dad, I’m bored. There’s nothing to do around here.”, but they’re wrong. There’s always something to do.

There were enough kids on our block that Cole and Alannah never even had to leave our block for their play dates when they were little. The kids would play in someone’s house or backyard or on the sidewalk and the adults would seize the opportunity for some adult conversation (and possibly some adult beverages, as well). Lots of lifelong friendships amongst the kids and the adults were made this way.

When we felt like a change of scenery, we’d go to one of the many neighbourhood parks. The play structure in the John Wanless schoolyard was a favourite stop. I can still picture Alannah climbing onto the chain-link spider’s web and walking to the top like she was walking on the ground while I scrambled to keep up behind her to make sure she was safe. Hours and hours were spent on the swings in Woburn Park at the corner of Jedburgh. That park was always packed with kids. If we wanted to feel like we were really out in nature, we’d go to Sherwood Park, roll down the hill and walk along the water until we reached the playground. In the winter, we’d head over to the hill at Glenview Middle School for tobogganing or to Otter Creek for some skating. The most amazing thing about this is that all of these parks are within 5 minutes of our home in a major urban centre. We may live in a big city, but we’ve always felt like we also live in a small town. We get the best of both worlds.

We didn’t have to travel far for structured activities either. There were plenty of activities from which to choose at the Fairlawn and Armour Heights Community Centres. Standing in line waiting to register wasn’t all that bad because it gave me the opportunity to see pretty much everyone I knew from the neighbourhood since they were standing in line, too. We made it a policy to treat Alannah and Cole the same which is how Alannah ended up playing boys’ hockey and Cole ended up taking ballet classes. I still remember looking at Cole’s furrowed brow on our way to their first ballet class and asking him what was wrong. He said he was concerned about being able to lift all the 5 year old girls over his head. Luckily for him, he never had to do that.

As our kids got older, we started to think about schools and sports, so that’s what the next few posts in this series will be about.

In the meantime, if you know of anyone who’s looking for an honest realtor who really knows his stuff and who doesn’t pressure his clients, Please Don’t Keep Me a Secret. I really appreciate your referrals. Thanks for reading and don’t be shy if you have any questions or comments!