Neighbors

Today my mommy's helper came over. Today's task was to get the kitchen ready for guests coming to breakfast tomorrow. It is very sad that my biggest task was to get all the dishes out of the sink. So I had quite a bit of time to think while hand washing dishes (it is actually faster than a dishwasher). I started thinking about our neighbors. Our block is very quiet. Probably due to the high percentage of retirees. The neighbors we know the best are on either side of us. Bob on the right and Bob on the left. Bekah's papa's name is Bob too. Put that together with Bob the tomato and its hard to know who she is talking about. Anyways. Bob on the right we know the best. He and his wife Barbara have adopted Bekah has a great granddaughter. They have major family drama and their great granddaughter doesn't come over much anymore even though they live very close. Bekah is welcome over there anytime she wants to go. The fact that they always have chocolate kisses and Dora cookies only makes her want to go over more. Up til now I have always gone over with her, but it is getting to the point that she can go in alone. When Barbara is with Bekah its like I'm not there anyways and I keep thinking "I could get so much done right now". I do spend time with them. Usually on their front porch in the evenings. They have also introduced us to the other retirees on the block. Barbara knows EVERYONE. So I try to be careful about what I tell her. The other Bob, on the left is a little of a different situation. The owner of the house is Bob's dad who can't take care of himself. Bob lives there during the week and takes care of him. Bob's sister comes on the weekend to relieve Bob and he goes to the lake. There is a little girl (about 5 or 6) in the family that I see periodically on weekends. Though I haven't figured out if she is Bob's niece or granddaughter. As I was thinking that we hadn't seen her lately and that maybe Bekah would be old enough to play with her this summer. Just then the mommy's helper came inside the house and said that the girl next door wanted Bekah to come over and play.
So that began a full day of little girls going back and forth between houses. I am not used to this at all. The morning was easy. The mommy's helper followed Bekah wherever she went. At noon I told the girl that it was time for us to eat and then Bekah needed a nap because she was still little. An hour later she came back. I told her it was not time yet and to come back in 2 hours. Of course she did come back. Bekah happily got up from her nap and put on her shoes to go next door. Then I had a decision to make. Do I go with her? They were going to ride bikes on the back patio so I decided that I would go out in my backyard and read a book.
As they were taking Bekah's bike over the little girl's mom came out. She told the little girl "we're leaving soon" and so Bekah couldn't come over. Bekah was crushed. We went back inside and sat in dad's chair and she cried. I wanted to cry too. There was no one at fault in the situation but my daughter was broken hearted all the same. I decided to break the no TV rule for this one time and let her watch "Bob".
Thankfully the mom said that they would come back sometimes and I told her that her girl is welcome to come over and play.