village

First of all, this is totally true. I love the way people on the bus always want to interact with Skipper. If I hold her so she's looking over my shoulder, she inevitably ends up having a conversation with a total stranger.

Second of all, shared housing is working out very well so far. I know all sorts of weirdness could develop, but so far there's just been shared meals, shared housework, and even some marvelously shared parenting. So far they have done the following with Dutch:

1. Walked the dog a bunch of times. Apparently, one time after I warned Dutch as she left not to talk Brendan's ear off, she spent half the walk talking incessantly, then switched over to walk on his other side, and said "now I'm going to talk your other ear off!" and talked incessantly the whole way home. He has perfected the noncommital, not-really-listening "mmmhmmm."
   
2. Made a scarecrow.
3. Made cupcakes.
4. Made sock puppets.
5. Watched her tap-dance.*

They're providing some of the fun-parent parts of parenting that Cook and I are currently too stressed and weary to provide. (Actually, we never provide the let's-make-a-sock-puppet sorts of parenting. ) Dutch is a lucky kid. We're watching carefully and trying to keep her from abusing their kindness while simultaneously taking as much advantage of them as possible; hopefully we'll be able to maintain a balance that works for everyone.


* She's taking tap dance classes at the community center this fall instead of ballet. She has absolutely no sense of rhythm whatsoever, so item #5 on this list may be the most impressive.