Neighborhood Friends

Erin and her kids across the street are kind of a big part of my life.  Yesterday, Jonathon (8 year old) was here for a while hanging out.  He's pretty helpful, especially since Adam was outside without a diaper and went to the bathroom in his pants....twice...so Jonathon stayed outside with Abbey while we took care of it (Yeah, toilet training is going THAT well).  Today, we went over there....my kids were bouncing off the walls and I couldn't wait to get them out the house.  Especially since Erin has a fenced in backyard with a swing set.  Or she did.

Erin has two older kids, Nathan and Abby. who stopped homeschooling earlier this year to go to the Christian School, so Erin's house is calmer.  And she's been working on making it more of a big kid house.  So when Abbey ran out the laundry room into the back yard and the swing set was gone, she was NOT happy.  Erin had been talking about getting rid of it for a while and she finally did.  So they ran around, with Abbey getting in trouble constantly for pulling at Erin's flowers.  There was a giant ball thing they liked and chasing her dogs is a highlight, but her kids weren't in the mood.  It's weird ...Daniel is Adam's age, but he acts like an older kid....probably because he is surrounded by older kids.

Back inside, Abbey was bouncing off the walls.  Finally, climbing up the pillar in their living room seem to occupy her. It was kind of hard to be there as I don't have my voice back and it hurts to keep saying NO and also, they don't listen to me as well.  So those 20 minutes where she was climbing the walls was awesome and I got a great sandwich and coffee made for me.  Lunch for my kids consisted of apples and kettle corn as they don't eat sandwiches.  In the photo below, you can see the awesome historical columns Abbey uses as a jungle gym.  She's behind Jonathon...she had cuddled him, but was done by the time I had my phone off.

Meanwhile, Daniel spends all his time "narrating" everything and tattling, which drives Erin insane.  It's pretty funny, because EVERY toddler has a trait that drives their parents nuts.  Adam was pretty good, playing with a helicopter.  Except he took it upon himself twice to shove Jonathon, once while he was up on the pillar.  Nothing like my giant toddler shoving an 8 year old!

Two hours later, I brought my kids home, Abbey screaming for the pinwheels on the porch, me going to the locked door.  I got them in the house and turned on Megamind.  Suddenly, they were fine.  They refuse to watch TV at anyone else's house, but in their own boring house, it was just the thing.  I realized how hot they were and they chilled out with some Goldfish and ice water.  Nothing like home.

The funny thing about Adam and Daniel is that they are really different and they seem to clash a lot, but they love being with each other.  Nothing excites Adam more than going to Daniel's house and if Daniel sees me outside he says "Mrs. Butler can Adam come to visit me?".  They are growing up...they posed for this photo AND both wanted to see it on my phone.  Adam just adores Jonathon, too (despite the pushing and says his name now over and over again JON-a-THON in syllables, wanting him to see whatever he does.  Love the smile.  It's the friends from our neighborhood that build our roots, I think, playing in the street like me when we lived in housing projects or when I moved across the street from Bethany.  Todd talks of playing football and hanging out, getting in trouble with neighbors as a teen.