The Goings On

Lately we have been having so much fun with our new neighbors across the street. They moved here from Illinois in January, if I remember correctly. They have a very energetic little 3-year-old boy who Sweet Pea loves to play with. He has a kazillion little vehicles that he rides around outside at least twice per day, sometimes three or four times. Which means that we can usually catch them for one play time per day. It has gotten Sweet Pea, the Bug and I out WAY more often than we used to get outside, which is wonderful, and I have a mommy friend to talk to who is right across the street! I am loving that. In our old neighborhood there were plenty of moms and kids, but I didn't speak the right language to be able to hang out with them very effectively.

This is more like what I grew up with - families just getting to know each other because the kids are out playing, unstructured/unplanned play dates, fresh air, impromptu offers of drinks, getting to hold the neighbors' new baby boy, etc. It's really nice. Our neighborhood is in the shape of a small circle and these neighbors live on an outside part of the circle that has the perfect vantage point. You can see the entrance to the neighborhood around one curve and down to where it curves around on the other side as well, so you can stand or sit in their driveway and keep the kids safe with voice control, because once you see a car you have plenty of time to tell them to get out of the road. This allows us to allow Sweet Pea and her little friend to ride their tricycles/tractors/foot-powered plastic cars/pedal cars in the street a lot during the day while there is no traffic in or out of our neighborhood. If we're out when everyone's coming home we keep them a bit closer, but this is pretty ideal.

I have so much more to yack about, but nothing groundbreaking, just the usual. However, I need to go get going now to start getting us packed for our family vacation this weekend. We'll be staying in the Santa Cruz Mountains and going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Saturday. Sweet Pea CANNOT WAIT to see the jellyfish. The big new exhibit is about otters, though, and she's pretty excited about that too. I am so looking forward to seeing her experience such a neato place for the first time.