Rainy Days and Mondays

Not much to report, but I couldn't resist posting this cute photo of the girls in their rain gear. Still no luck in finding rain boots for them, and they were both wet up past their knees after walking home from school in the rain. The rain kept them indoors at school all day, and they were little bundles of energy when we got home. I went to Wal-Mart this morning, and one of my purchases was a red plastic ball for them to play with. My thought was that we'd play with it OUTDOORS, but the girls couldn't resist giving it a test drive in the apartment. I really pity our downstairs neighbors. . . .

And then there's our next-door neighbors. They are Japanese, and we see the wife fairly often. She only speaks a little English, but always acts thrilled to listen to the girls prattle on. They don't have a kitchen in their apartment, and use the kitchen across the hall (something I remind myself of when I feel like complaining about my teeny-tiny kitchen -- at least I don't have to leave the apartment to use it!). The girls have taken a real liking to her, in part because she made the mistake of giving them candy and they hope for more handouts, and always check to see if she's in the kitchen when we leave and return to our apartment. I was so embarrassed on Sunday -- we walked by the neighbor's door and Maya suddenly knocked on it. It was so unexpected I didn't even realize what she had done at first. And then I had to try to explain to the poor lady that we didn't really need anything, that Maya had just gotten it into her head to knock. Sigh.