Neighborhood watch

If you happen to live in my neighborhood or on one of the several streets we frequent on our daily walks, you'll be happy to know that my daughter has become the neighborhood watch. She has memorized which cars go with which houses, and she notices when one is not in its proper driveway.

"Oh! The white truck is gone!" she said today. The white truck shares a driveway with the yellow car, and it's been home every time we've walked by over the past few months. The yellow car, however, has gone missing a few times before. Now every time we pass that house, I hear, "The yellow car went bye-bye. Now it's back."

Ashlinn also remembers which cars she's seen driven by "boys" and which she's seen driven by "girls." "That's the boy's truck," she says when we pass the big blue truck in one driveway. "A girl drives that car," she says when we pass the black car in another driveway.

Of course, she doesn't just recognize cars. She also knows where the dogs live, where the cats live, and where the two girls we saw playing outside one day last week live. When we don't see the girls outside, she tells me that they are "in the house eating dinner"--even though we usually walk in the morning. Come to think of it, that's also what she says when the little black dog isn't outside when we pass by its house.

All that to say... If any of our neighbors, their pets, or their cars go missing, we'll be on the case right away! And if any of our neighbors trade in their old cars for something new, I'm sure to hear about it for at least a week.