FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Among his many treasures, Mr. B has a number of play figures. It started with the community helper group (doctor, mail lady, teacher, fireman, etc.), then grew to include a large number of family figures. Mr. B was not content to have just the white family, but had to have the hispanic, black, and native american ones as well. (The Hungarian Nanny, who was given the job of taking Mr. B to purchase these toys refused to let him have the "disabled" group. She had her reasons, of course).
Now we have many figures of all ages and races. Mr. B is quite good now at identifying the Moms and Dads, boys, girls, and Grandpas. However, he always gets a really curious look on his face when I hold up a Grandma, and ask him "Hey, who is this?" He never answers, and I finally say, "It's a Grandma!". Then he gives me that suspicious look again.
I think I've figured out why this perplexes B. All of the play Grandmas have gray hair. Both of Brendan's Grandmas have BLOND HAIR.
Of all of the play people, the mail lady is by far Mr. B's favorite.
A DAY FOR THE RECORD BOOKS
After watching me take all of the contents from the two backpacks and one paper sack and put them all safely away in the drawers, Mr. B put a few things in his pocket and went out with the Hungarian Nanny. He went to Marmalade WITHOUT THE BACKPACKS! Then, he went to the playground WITHOUT THE BACKPACKS!!
One small step for Mr. B, one giant leap for Mr. B's life.
WooHoo!
NOT VERY NICE
So, for the second time in about a month, Sunset Boulevard has been completely closed down through the Village due to a bomb scare. At a bank that had just been held up by some low-life loser.
TGG and I had walked down to the Village to buy him a new pair of skate shoes, since his had a hole in the sole. (That's what happens when you ride your board down the street, dragging one foot on the pavement to control your speed.) Got the shoes (a mere $75 for sneakers!) and noticed a horde of people walking up Sunset after being evicted temporarily from their places of employment. Most of them settled into Starbucks to wait for the bomb squad to show up and check out the situation. So, TGG and I were re-routed from our desired walk back home.
Since our neighborhood is deemed very safe and pretty quiet and inhabited mostly by families, their isn't a very big LAPD presence here. The bank robbers have taken note, and over the last year of so crime has steadily risen.
What makes me really angry about it is that it upsets my 87 year old neighbor Bonnie, who has lived here over 50 years.
Not very nice.
