The boy had his very first friend over tonight. It was impromptu.

Until tonight, W and Neighbor Boy have communicated between two chain link fences with long sticks they pretend are spears. They each stand behind their respective barriers, making up games with their “spears” like, “Look out! There’s a monster behind you!” Or they take turns seeing whose stick can touch the highest branch in the tree that hangs over both fences. Or they pretend to “kill the bear” (W’s personal favorite). Sometimes they whack their sticks together as they poke them out between the chain links. But tonight, Hubs told Neighbor Boy he could come over after dinner. When I got back from taking the dog for a walk, their little shoes were sitting outside the door. They played together for about half an hour. No chain link fence barring the way.

Neighbor Boy is about six. You know what I love about 6 year olds? They really don’t mind playing with 2 year olds all that much, which is cool.

When it was time for Neighbor Boy to go home, I assessed the damage. As you can see, it was catastrophic. Boy crying. Teddy bear down. Pieces from individual Lego Duplo sets commingled… A mess. If you know me well, you know that in my universe, one does not commingle Legos between sets. But I played it cool tonight. Something about fences coming down for an evening made it okay for Legos to socialize outside their usual circles. Just this once.