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I grew up in the woods. We didn't have neighbors or traffic. My brother and I could ride our bikes whenever and wherever we wanted without fear of getting run over or snatched up.

But now, I like living in a city.

Growing up in the country, we never started making a recipe until we had checked to make sure we had all the ingredients. The nearest grocery store was 20 minutes away. Where I live now, I have a grocery store exactly 1 mile from my house. Our town has two malls, three Targets, three Walmarts and all kinds of local and chain stores. There's a children's museum. There's a zoo within 45 minutes. There's a science center a few miles away. We have library branches all over the place and parks and playgrounds scattered all over the city. I think all of that stuff will be really good while we're raising Biscuit.

But I have to say, there are a lot of times that I feel sad that he won't have the freedom that I had growing up. We live on a cul-de-sac, but there are teenagers with new driver's licenses, which means riding a bike on and around our driveway can only be done under strict supervision. We have trees in our yard, but not really any that are right for climbing. There's nowhere for Biscuit to explore.

Luckily, it's only a 2 1/2-hour drive to get back to where I grew up. My parents still live there. So does my brother, his wife and three kids. So even though Biscuit won't get to be there every day, he'll still get to have some of the same experiences I had as a kid ... the creek, tractors, dirt bikes, bonfires, walking in the woods, four-wheelers, the dune buggy, the tree house.

We visited my parents last weekend for Biscuit's second birthday, and I stole a little bit of time away to take a walk around the pond. There was no wind that day. You couldn't hear cars on the far-away highway. If airplanes ever do come over, they're so high up that you can barely hear them. On that walk, I heard something I hadn't heard in a while ... complete silence.

It was so quiet that it hurt my ears. I'm used to a busy newsroom, a TV, a playful toddler, traffic, whatever noises are constantly around. But to hear that utter silence really reminded me to make a commitment to share that experience with Biscuit.

Here's a picture I took of the pond on my walk. The water was so still that it looked like a mirror. Can you imagine waking up to see that our your window every morning?