This summer we have had the joy of making a new friend, a 9-year-old girl from next door, named Aaliyah. She is especially Amelia’s friend, but plays happily with any or all of our children.

Here is what happened just a short time ago:

Miguel hurried to the basement where I was fiddling with laundry.
“Have I had supper?”, he asked?
I was distracted and couldn’t understand the strange question. He restated his question, this time helping me understand that he meant to ask if he had already eaten lunch. I told him that no, well, yes, he had eaten some of that chocolate cheesecake. I asked why he needed to know.
“Aaliyah wants to come over, but she can’t come over until after I’ve eaten lunch.”
I told Miguel to tell Aaliyah she could come over. But again he needed to know if he had eaten a healthy lunch.
Finally I went out to talk to Aaliyah myself.
“Do you want to come over?”, I asked over the fence.
She smiled and nodded.
“Then come on over! That’s fine with me. Tell your grandma I said it’s fine.” Then I added, “Have you eaten lunch already?”
She said that yes, she had just eaten.
“Ok. But I would have been happy to give you a sandwich or something”, I said.
She smiled again, “That’s fine. But I sometimes have something like that for a snack.”
In another moment she and Miguel were coming in the back door and they stood there as I finished making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
“Would you like some of this sandwich?”, I asked our guest.
Big smile!
“Sure!”
“Crunchy or creamy?”, I inquired.
Miguel jumped in at that point. “Creamy doesn’t have any peanuts in it, but crunchy does!”
I decided not to correct him, even though I wanted to interject that all peanut butter has peanuts in it.
“Creamy”, she decided.
“Ok,” I replied, “Then someone will need to go down to the pantry to get the creamy peanut butter, because all I have here is crunchy.
Miguel and Aaliyah both spun around to hurry on the errand. Judah followed on their heels, eager to help as well, since he had already been begging for the creamy peanut butter but had been unsuccessful in his goal of persuading me to fetch it for him.
They were back in a flash, handing over the creamy peanut butter.
I made another sandwich, cut it into squares, and handed out the pieces on napkins.
Off they went, to eat in their hut in the back yard.
I had to smile. So much for eating lunch already, eh?

P.S. Laura took both of these photos. I’m getting some competition as family photographer!