Speechless

This afternoon the kids and I met some different kids who live on our block.  Julia had gone with a friend to Ulta, probably her new favorite store since she's discovered the world of makeup, and Holly and Alan had gone outside to play.  Holly and Alan met some kids about their ages out front and played a little basketball with them before moving to the backyard. 

There were 4 boys.  Two brothers, one who was Alan's age and was playing with Alan and the other was Julia's age and was playing with Holly.  The other two boys were a little older and weren't related.

Everyone seemed to be getting along, being polite, sharing, following the rules of the yard... I was talking with one of the older boys who was amazed and interested in the garden and what grew there.  The other boys and Holly were swinging on the tire swing and climbing the rope and playing tug-o-war with another rope in the yard. 

I was slightly prying into the one boy while talking about the garden to find out where these boys lived and to try to get a handle on how old they were.

Then Alan came out from inside the house with some toilet paper in his hands.  He said his friend had to use the bathroom and hadn't made it in time.  And he said the boy was out front with poop in his pants.

So I went to investigate.  (Jillian was safely swinging and I left Holly watching her swing.)

I found the boy in the front of the house, with his pants semi-down.  I told him to come in, showed him the bathroom, gave him a grocery sack to put his dirty stuff in, and gave him some wipes.  I told him to put his pants in the bag, to finish on the toilet, to use toilet paper and clean himself with wipes - which he should put in the trash - and I gave him a pair of Alan's old pants I'd been contemplating putting in the Goodwill box.

And I left him.

He cleaned himself.  I guess.  And came outside.  Then I sent him back inside to wash his hands. And he went and washed.

Then he came back out and went back to playing.  The other boys didn't give him a hard time at all.  They did eventually want him to get off the swing because he smelled bad, but they didn't tease him. 

And they didn't take him home.

Shortly afterward, I sent them all home anyway.  It was getting to be dinner time.

I think even Alan was amazed at the boy going to the front yard to do his business.

After they left I cleaned up some toilet paper from the front flowerbed - which is basically empty at the moment.

I was left kind of speechless.  Aside from being amazed that the events even took place the way they did, I was kind of amazed that the boy didn't want to go home, embarrassed. 

As they ran off toward home after I sent them on their way, I called after the last one "Nice to meet you!", and he called back with a "Thanks." 

And I guess that's that.