Keeping up with the Joneses

Well after months of noisy barking dogs, wandering cats who decided to use our garage as a place to keep their kittens dry when it rained and too many various cars and kids to count, our neighbors moved out last September. Given that I was about 9 months pregnant at that point, I noticed, but I can't honestly say I was sorry to see them go. I had spent all summer sleepless due to the fact that I was hugely pregnant and the few times I could actually achieve sleep, their caged dogs in the backyard were sure to wake me up...in the middle of the night...for hours. So yeah, when they left, my eyes weren't exactly welling up with tears.

This was followed by a good 6 months of complete quiet, for which I was thankful. No noise, no people, no animals. Just a house going through foreclosure, as so many are around the country.

And then finally, about a month ago, everything started changing quickly. Fix-it vans were at the house everyday. Suddenly, the for sale sign was down. And then, a new family arrived. Two parents with two little girls, who immediately took a liking to OBB and his sandbox.

One day this week, as my entire house was quiet with the silence of napping children, I attemtped to sleep myself when suddenly a new noise kept me from achieving slumber...the sounds of little girls frolicking in their swimming pool.

I have to say, if you're going to have an above ground swimming pool, I do have more respect for you if you actually use it. However, this presented a problem for me when OBB woke up from his nap way earlier than usual and Baby Girl stayed asleep in dreamyland.

So I took OBB outside to the shed and proceeded to pull out the baby pool and a new blowup Lightning McQueen pool. This was very exciting to OBB. So exciting, in fact, that he had to stand on the edge of our backyard and announce to the girls next door (who couldn't hear him at all): "I'm getting out my baby pool! I'm getting out my baby pool!" It cracked me up.

SO for two hours OBB played in his pools, the baby slept and I sat in the chair and read magazines. Really a perfect afternoon. Thanks to the noisy girls next door.


Filling up the baby pool (which I explained was for his little sister)
















Loving the new goggles...
















And the new Lightning McQueen pool....if you look, you can see our neighbor's pool in the distance...















Giving the big thumbs up (and yes, those are lightning bolts on his swimmies)