The Neighbors

Our neighbors have a son about Jack's age, so they play together every so often. They also have an enclosed yard, whereas ours connects with a yard belonging to bigger kids, who as I've mentioned in the past Jack is fascinated with and wants to play with, even though he really can't/shouldn't and it usually ends badly. In short, we usually play over in Max's yard.

Max's 3rd birthday gift was a little house structure, which is basically a child-size plastic house with a front porch, kitchen area, and windows he can peek out. ("And a doorbell!" Jack said to Grandma; apparently it made quite an impression on him after his first visit.) Jack likes it a lot; I think he could quite happily go over there and play in it for a while on a daily basis.

So today we were over there and Max's Dad, Mike, who's fairly tall, crawled into it to entice Max and Jack into playing with it rather than whatever it was they were doing, which appeared to be throwing small rocks into a hole in the dirt and laughing hysterically. Or something similar. Then they moved on to throwing small rocks into a hole in a ladder leaning against the house. Next time Mike needs the ladder, it's going to rattle. Anyway, Jack came over -- Max continued to throw rocks, apparently because playing with Mike and the house didn't have the same novelty for him as it did for Jack -- and walked into the house like he owned the place. Mike crawled out, because it was pretty crowded.

"So Jackie (he calls him Jackie), what are you doing?" Jack: "I'm going to make dinner." "What are you going to make?" Jack: "Potatoes with apple sauce, with some sugar on the side." "Okay......." Jack busied himself in the tiny kitchen. Then: Mike rang the doorbell. Jack ignored it. Mike: "I'm at the door." Jack: "Oh, come in!" Mike: "No, you're supposed to say, who is it?" Jack: "Oh. Who is it?" Mike: "My car broke down, may I use your phone?" Jack: "Okay, come in!" Mike (mock exasperated): "No, you can't just let me in! I could be anybody." Jack: "Oh." Mike: "Can I come in and use your phone?" Jack: "Okay!" Mike: "(sigh)"

(I should mention that while Jack was playing with Max, Max's Mommy, Lisa, was crawling around in the grass shooting pictures of Kate with her camera. I think she just likes having new subjects to take pictures of, or she likes taking pictures, but regardless, she's taken some absolutely outstanding pictures of both Kate and Jack, and one day we're going to schedule her to take Kate's 6 month old picture. Er, Kate will be 8 months old in less than two weeks.)

Later that night, Emily and Jack were looking at houses online. Emily does that sometimes. At one point Jack got really sad. and he said in his quiet, sad voice: "We're not going to move away from Max, are we?"

Emily (long pause): "Er...well, maybe one day, but not for a long time."

And really, who knows.