it only took me 3 years to meet the neighbors

Trick or treating last night with JQ and G-tot was so much fun! It was beautiful in Toledo—with a high of 70° after many days of 40° weather—and it didn't get dark until well after 7:00. Our original plan was to just go to a few houses around ours and then come back and pass out candy. G-tot was so into it we went much further than I had expected his little legs to handle.

checking out his loot

I had alterior motives to just raking in the treats. I know a grand total of 4 neighbors around here and a few months ago a new couple—one being quite pregnant—moved in down the street. This was my chance to meet them without knocking on the door like a weirdo stranger. Yay! When we approached the house, the neighbor was sitting out front and I noticed she had a little bundle on her lap. Her four week old daughter—awwww—who, I learned, shares a name with our friends dog. I'm guessing I won't forget that one. :)

As we were finishing up our trek we hit the half a dozen houses that sit across the street from ours. As I walked up to the first of these houses I greeted the owners with an, "Hola. ¿Comó esta?" To which the man responded with a semi-surprized, "Bien." That answered confirmed what I thought I saw when I approached the house. It was my high school Spanish teacher. I couldn't believe it. We chatted for a minute and as we left JQ said, "Hasta luego." We're such nerds.

I met the neighbors that live directly across from us by just asking the group which one lived here and then introducing myself. They were very nice—complementing what we've done with our landscape and informally inviting us over for fires in the summer. But the best neighbor meet-up of the night was the very next house. JQ and I had met the guy that lives across the street a couple of years ago very briefly. I was hoping to meet the wife and son last night (it's on my list!) They must have been out trick-or-treating, but the conversation that we had with the husband was crazy.

JQ and I reintroduced ourselves and made small talk for a moment. He asked how old G-tot was and his name. When we told him, he cocked his head to the side and said, "G-tot? That's interesting, my son has a kid that goes to his school with the name G-tot." When he said his son's name I about keeled over in shock. You see, the daycare G-tot goes to doesn't offer part-time for toddlers—but we only needed Mondays and Wednesdays. Lucky for us, there was another family that was paying for full-time care, but only going part-time—Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. So, we could both benefit from it—both families get the care they need and only pay for the days they're using. Win. Win. The only thing is, we would have to share a cubby with the other kid. No big deal. Fast forward to last night when we discovered that the other family is neighbors across the street! What are the chances? I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.

What a small world. Now I just have to meet his wife and son.

post t-or-t, eating his first lollipop ever