Random Precious Moment

One of my favorite memories of this week has to do with Abby and our new neighborhood.

She’s 5 now, so she’s getting her independence, but she’s still a sweet little baby in other ways. We’ve moved to a new neighborhood, and since she’s getting bigger and would like to make friends in this new neighborhood, she’s been eyeing the neighbor kids as they play in the street.

This weekend she saw some kids playing and decided to “go for it.” She asked if she could go for a scooter ride and I said I’d take her out. With her helmet on and scooter in tow, she was ready to go in a flash. The neighbor kids, however, had disappeared by the time we got out there.

Undaunted, Abby spotted a couple of older girls (9-12 years old maybe) walking down the road and took off after them. She really wanted to meet some neighbors!

She was too excited to meet people to realize that these girls were too old to play with a 5 year old, but I figured she’d just say hi when she caught up to them, and that would be that.

Off she went, and there was pregnant me tagging along well behind her, trying to keep up and not slow her down. She had a lot of ground to make up if she wanted to catch them!

There went my little Abby, all 30 pounds of her, all decked out in her Hello Kitty helmet, scooting along down our street excited to introduce herself – or something like that. I really don’t think she thought that far in advance to know what she’d do once she caught up with them.

In the end, the girls ended up taking a turn out of our neighborhood, so there was no way for Abby to casually follow them with hopes of catching up. As we realized this, we spotted some other kids playing in the street in front of their house – and it was on our way back home, too.

We made our way down towards them, but once we got there, Abby didn’t know what to do! She was so excited, and then she froze up. It was kind of funny in a cute little kid way.

I told her to say hi and introduce herself, but she got shy and just went on her way since the kids were kind of waiting for us to pass so they could continue their game of ball without hitting us. They didn’t know Abby wanted to meet them, and she chickened out anyway, so we just went home. They were a little older, too, so I didn’t bother pushing the issue with her meeting them either.

Around the next block we went, and on the final stretch down our street, we saw some adult neighbors in their garage painting some tables. Abby was intrigued by this activity, and the people were friendly enough to say hi as we passed, so she felt like she met some neighbors. The fumes were a little strong though, so I didn’t linger or catch their names. I just shot them a smile, said hi, and kept walking this time.

Here I am, days later, and I keep going back to that image of Abby in her helmet, bopping down the street on her scooter, all excited to actually meet some neighbors. So young. So innocent. So excited. That one will stick for a while…