Making Friends

Before I married and moved out at 21 I had lived on 18 acres surrounded by trees and fields with no neighbors close by, so it has been strange for me to live in a neighborhood as an adult. There is so little privacy, I can hear my neighbors talking on the phone when they are outside, the street is so close to the house, we constantly have solicitors coming to the door to sell us new siding or windows who inevitably come at naptime and make so much noise they wake my boys up. I long for a time when perhaps Tone' and I can move somewhere with even a couple acres surrounding us so I can send my boys outside to play and not have to worry about them being squished by a car if they wander 20 feet from the house. I would also love to have a place with even a single tree that they can climb and build a fort in and hang a swing from. I would love to have room to raise chickens and goats, plant a large garden, leave my curtains open and not have passers by looking in on me in my pajamas and so much more.

There is one positive that comes from living in a neighborhood, however, and that is the unlikely relationships that can spring from living so near to people. One such unlikely relationship is that of our neighbor, Mr. B, and my boys. Last summer Nikolas really started to get to know him and the whole summer long Nik was a constant shadow to Mr. B as he tinkered around his house and garage. Nik had figured out how to unlock the screen doors and escape last summer and so I would often be running outside in a panic thinking he had run off down the street, but nearly always, I would find him squatting next to Mr. B as they worked on one project or another. With the weather being abnormally cold for a longer time this year, we hadn't seen much of Mr. B since the fall, but today the sun was shining and the temperature was pleasant so I let Lukas go outside to wander while Nikolas was napping. Soon Mr. B came out to change his tires on his truck and he noticed little Lukas walking around. Lukas was only a crawling baby in the fall so he was like a new little person to Mr. B. Mr. B tried to talk to him, but in shy Lukas fashion, he stuck his lower lip out, lowered his head and stared at the ground. Mr. B understood and soon he was busy turning the handle on the jack and raising the truck off the ground. This caught Luke's attention and soon his curiosity overcame his shyness and he slowly made his way over to the truck and squatted down in that cute little toddler pose and just watched in wonder.
Then he became a little bold and started "talking" and reaching for the lug nut wrench (right name?).

Mr. B thought he was too cute and started talking to him again and showing him what he was doing. Lukas stayed in that one spot for the next 20 minutes, just watching and listening and beginning to develope a relationship.

What is especially touching to me about Mr. B and his relationship with my boys is that Tone' grew up in the house we live in and Mr. B had been there from when Tone' was Nik's age. How fun that he watched Tone' grow up and now he is watching Tone's children grow up as well.

So if I must live in a neighborhood, I couldn't have picked better neighbors than Mr. B and the many other wonderful people just a few steps away.