National Night Out

Last night was national night out, one of my favorite evenings of the year. This year, I got in on the planning a little bit and helped get signatures from our block so we could close the street off for the festivities. This year was particularly great for several reasons. I had a baby (yay), there were a lot more people from a couple other blocks, I wasn't off performing a puppet show in another neighborhood, I knew a lot more people from our block, people ate up every last bit of our pilaf and cookies, me and a bunch of other nursing moms got to dig in the food first, and there was a big ass firetruck that came by!

There is a little girl on our block with some developmental problems. She comes up to me sometimes and asks me things in a very serious and intense way, usually followed by a lot of "why"s. The great thing is, when I give her a satisfactory answer, she gives me this great big sparkly smile that's just amazing. Well, yesterday, she got to go on the fire truck. There was a big old fireman there with a booming voice who was talking to everyone about firetrucks and answering questions, and he turned to her and said, "and this fire truck belongs to you"! You should have seen her face. Her jaw dropped to the floor, and she said, "Really??", and of course the big fireman said "Yes!" in a giant voice. He had no idea that she would take him literally of course, and turned away. She immediately turned to her mom and said, "How long can I keep it? Can I keep it forever?"

Ruby was all hyped up from the action and didn't go to sleep right away, but it was worth it.