For the longest time, I have been a little sad that Tristan won't have the same wonderful experiences that I had as a child...don't get me wrong, there are A LOT of things that he experiences on a day to day basis that are great and that I never had, but there are also tons of things I would like him to have as well....
When I grew up in Louisiana, I had a best friend in the neighborhood and several other "friends" and the WHOLE neighborhood was our playground. We played hide and seek, duck-duck-goose, rode bikes, made mud pies, searched for doodle bugs, flew kites, etc. The days were long and we had not a care in the world. I would leave the house and not be back all day sometimes, I knew it was time to go home when the streetlights came on and by then the singing bugs and frogs were deafening, then I'd come home to the whole house smelling awesome from Mom cooking supper.... ahhhh, it was great... *sigh*
Well, about the time Tristan was 4 I realized that at 5 years old, I was doing all those things and Tristan had never done them. In our old neighborhood, we were in an apartment, on the 3rd floor, so Tristan couldn't go outside w/o a grown-up and there were no kids his age to play with anyways. That's why even though we loved our town, we knew we had to move somewhere else.
Well, now we live in this great new neighborhood that is bursting at the seems with young families and it's great! Yesterday, Tristan and I were outside planting my herbs and lettuce and just enjoying being outside when the girl from down the street came over. She's WAY older than Tristan, but she doesn't care.... they were digging beneath the mulch and finding worms and doodle bugs, they played with Tristan's cars and then her little sister came over and they all played. Then the girls' neighbor came home, so they all went to see her little dog and asked if Tristan could go too, I said sure. When I came out to check on him, they were all climbing a tree and the teenage neighbor girl was sitting on her car on the phone watching them..... so I went back inside. ( I left the door open) and kept checking on them. (We live at the very end, on a dead end, so it's pretty quiet back here) Tristan came back for something to drink and brought his chalk outside and the 3 of them were drawing on the sidewalk and the girls taught him how to play hopscotch!! A while later they were down with the teenager again and having a "talent" show where they all sang, Tristan was pretending he was a "rock star".... I kept going out to check on him and the girl said don't worry, I sit out here and watch the girls all the time I'll keep an eye on him :)
It was great! I made dinner with the door and windows open and listened to music, stepping out every now and then to check. Tristan had SO much fun and they played for hours!
I am just SO happy here! I'm so glad that there are kids to play with here and even though our own yard is very, VERY small, there is still plenty of open space for him to play in! I have a feeling this new chapter in our lives is going to be a great one!! ;)
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