Ivy, Ivy, and more of Ivy....

Rachel has made a little friend in the neighborhood. Her name is Ivy, she's in second grade, and she lives just up the street from us. Her dad, Billy, is in the Foreign Service -- public affairs, as it happens -- and her mom, Jenny, is a writer/editor. Ivy has a twin brother named Liam. The family moved here around the same time we did; they have been posted in Estonia and the Philippines, and the dad is getting ready to head to Afghanistan next April (the kids don't know yet) and so he is studying Dari for hours and hours every weekend, in between painting the inside of their house (he used to be a house painter, a contractor, and a lawyer before joining the Foreign Service. Yes, we have interesting neighbors).

From the day Ivy and Rachel met on the neighborhood swing across the street from Ivy's house, the little girls have been inseparable. Ivy came over to our house for breakfast last Sunday, and then Rachel went over and played while Drew and I desperately tried to hang art and shelve books while she was gone. We also hang out at their house after I pick Rachel up from school.

Today after I got back from renting a flexible ladder so we could hang some African cloth on the wall above the stairs -- and then going to a fabulous bakery that gave us a free coupon for bread, muffins, pastries and cupcakes -- we went to the Falls Church Farmers Market (a really lovely discovery). Drew and I were just about to settle in for a long day of unpacking/shelving/hanging art when Ivy and her dad stopped by, wondering if Rachel wanted to come over. Instead, we invited Ivy to play on the swings in our backyard for a while. Billy ran to Home Depot to pick up some stuff while his wife, Jenny, worked on painting their house, and I told Billy to let Ivy stay as long as she wanted. After a while he returned, they picked up Rachel and then all went to Ivy's house where Jenny had baked bittersweet chocolate brownies and Rachel and Ivy played most of the afternoon. Drew and I hung a lot of art, then I went to Ivy's house to fetch Rachel. They were having such a great time that I invited Ivy to come to our house for "family movie night" (pizza and, usually, a Barbie movie for Rachel), then ran out to do some errands. On the way back I picked up a pizza and discovered Drew had made A LOT of progress shelving books (despite having a horrible cold that makes him look and sound terrible). We all watched "Barbie Princess Charm School" downstairs (this is why I'm trying to sign Rachel up for physics classes and work on math with her, to counteract the Barbie influence) and then I walked both girls back to Ivy's because Rachel had left something there.

Billy had almost finished painting the house and it looked stunning; I complimented him over and over again and remarked that I wish we were able to paint, too, but the owners of the house said no -- even though their taste in paint is, well, questionable. (Brown walls and green curtains in the master bedroom? Really??). They thanked me for hosting Ivy, which was no trouble at all -- she's well-mannered and she and Rachel really, really like each other.

One of my dreams has always been to live in a house on a street with lots of kids who'd run in and out of our house all day, and Rachel would run in and out of the neighbors' houses all day, and we'd become known as the house where Rachel's Mom makes great food and treats, and that we'd find ourselves hosting one of Rachel's little friends for dinner or breakfast or whatever on a frequent basis, and that she'd never be lonely without a sibling because she'd be around her friends all the time.

 And now it looks like the universe has granted my wish, and I couldn't be happier.