Yesterday the young parents across the street were out in front with their small children, a girl old enough to proudly ride her red tricycle (cute helmet!) and her little brother, who is old enough to run and grin but not old enough to do much in the way of speech yet, or at least not so’s he’d let on to non-family.
They saw me and waved an enthusiastic hi! and she wheeled and he followed. I sat down on the sidewalk so I would be looking up at them and the little girl promptly got off her bike and sat down too so that she was looking up at me anyway. The little boy stood to the other side of me and grinned and grinned, his specialty.
I had been claimed. I was utterly charmed.
I showed them the yellow oxalis flower buds with the clover-y leaves that take over our front this time of year and told her, They close up at night or when there’s a shadow but when the sun shines on them they open right up and you can see them. You are welcome to pick some any time.
She gathered a bouquet. He watched intently, not missing a thing.
So this morning with Christmas vacation week still in effect the little ones wanted to come over and say hi and Richard told me, That’s the doorbell.
We said hi and I ran to go get my hearing aids. They don’t go in till the hair’s dry but that had been an hour earlier.
Meantime, the little brother had seen my small-boy-centric basket of toys near the door and when I came back around the corner he was playing with a sturdy Tonka digger truck in delight. The mom was apologetic that the kids had gotten past her as she and Richard had chatted, but no, no, you’re very welcome, come on in!
We had a grand time till the mom had to say a no to the daughter and there was a tiny meltdown and they headed off.
You know? I’d been looking for the motivation to do a major once-over on the house today after all that intense knitting that had allowed other things to slide the past few days. The floor is mopped and swept now, the bathrooms cleaned, the kitchen scrubbed, even half the fridge. Not that we’ll remember any of what wasn’t done when they came–just the joy.
The drive band is askew on my spinning wheel. And I can’t wait for them to come back.
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