I was hoping to have the finishing touches on a new blog design done today. But I'm not quite there yet.
Instead, I'll tell you the miracle of the girl next door.
One major drawback of living in the boonies (aside from baby-snatching scorpions and no dish washer) is the lack of children and their attendant families on whom you can temporarily foist your kids. Neighborhoods generally come with a handful of similarly-aged children and, I'm told, parents can gain entire afternoons of freedom by sending their wee ones out to play. Somewhere else. Not here. Get out. Go away. Dear Lord, get OFF ME!
Um, sorry 'bout that. Where was I?
Ah, yes. Neighborhood kids. We only have one set of neighbors. They're the caretakers for the rich folks next door. These are the neighbors of the chickens and trailer. The grown-ups don't speak English very well, but I'm sure they're similarly impressed with my Spanish skills. We get along well enough, and they've invited us over for cook-outs and we've returned the favor with camp fires and marshmallows.
The other day, the mom and her daughter, who's 11, came over to inform us of some septic system woes (hey, there's a fun sentence!). While we were talking and gesticulating, E. and Hannah began to go through toys and converse. By the time they were ready to leave, Hannah was pulling on my shorts asking if E. could stay and play for a while.
I looked at E. trying to discern if she actually had any interest in playing with a four-year-old, or if she was just being polite. She seemed really excited, so I said she could stay as long as her mom was okay with it. E. stayed the whole evening, through dinner and up through Caroline's bath. They played board games, colored, played dress-up, tag, and hide-and-go-seek. But best of all, they played Surprise, which consists of me staying away ("Don't come in here, momma, till we tell you to! it's a surprise!") until they announced they were ready. Guess what the surprise was. You'll never guess. Go ahead. Okay, fine.
CLEANING! They cleaned up one room after the other, which is nice when there are only three rooms in the whole house to begin with!
The following day, we went up to the local swimming pool and took E. with us. She was a huge help, getting Hannah to put her head under water, jump in from the side, and even taking her to buy ice cream when the ice cream truck came around. She's been over one other time since then and asked when she could come next.
I couldn't be happier that the girls have a new playmate. And a super-polite, helpful one at that. She took both girls over to her house for a few hours yesterday - something we've never done before. I was a bit nervous, but so very appreciative for the time alone.
I think what amazes me most is that an eleven-year-old is still interested in playing with such small kids. Granted, she only has two brothers, and they seem way too rough and tumble typical dirty boy types for her. But still. From what I recall, I was way too "over it" to hang with little kids at that age. Which is too bad. Because she clearly has fun. And how great it must be to have another summer of true childhood before adolescence swoops in for the kill.
All in all, I don't think I could have planned that any better. A kid who loves to clean! SWEET!
