Addition

This spring, we found out that one of Sabrina's best friends was moving into a house 1 block over from ours.  We were thrilled.  Sabrina, for obvious reasons, But I was, too.  I have so many memories of playing with my friend, Ann Marie, who lived a few houses down the alley. Just to have a friend that close, so close you could walk over, knock on the door, and see if anyone is home at any particular time without have to make arrangements, well.  That's totally cool in my book.  (Aside: if anybody wants to be my friend and move into my neighborhood, you can come knock on my door to see if I can play any old time.  But now I have coffee and booze.  Times are better.)

It's been just as fantastic as I imagined.  All summer long it was either "Can I go see if Natalie is home?"or Natalie was knocking on the back door.  Both the girls are super busy, and I know they'd love to hang out more, but the fact that they can fill open times by just seeing if the other is home is a luxury I think we all appreciate. But what I didn't anticipate was Natalie's little brother, Jonathan.  He is here all the time.  Like, I feed him a lot all the time.  It's cool.  He's a good kid.  But it doesn't make sense on the surface.  He's a third grader.  The closest thing I have to a third grader is Sabrina.  And she's occupied. You wouldn't think he'd want anything to do with a place his sister (ew!) likes to go.

At first, I figured that maybe he just needed to get out of his house.  He has 3 sisters, so his place is pretty full, of girls.  That might be a part of it, but it's not really.

Here's the thing.  He and Sammy are buddies.  They LOVE hanging out together.  They might be 5 years apart in age (exactly - that was a fun discovery) and seemingly have little in common, but they are simpatico.  They ride their bikes around the neighborhood, play video games, jump on (thankfully, Jonathan's) trampoline, and concoct all kinds of plans sure to give me angina.  Sammy has no problem at all hanging out with younger kids (or older ones for that matter), and he treats them all as equals.  And I think Jonathan sees Sammy as the brother he never had.  It's unconventional and completely awesome.

Not the feeding of a second ravenous boy child, but you take the good with the hangry.

So I've acquired 2 extra children.  It's great.