Ahhh, children

Jada and Jasmine live in the house next door. Jada is three and I think Jasmine is around seven or eight. They're cute, talkative, and most of all, VERY inquisitive about everything going on on the block.

Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that they have ZERO stimulation in their lives aside from Jasmine's school-day. Other than that, Jada sits on the stoop (or follows me around when I'm outside) almost ALL DAY, and Jasmine does the same as soon as she returns home from school.

Today I was trying to paint my front porch (which has no door, sadly) and they would not leave me alone. The stood on my steps, peeking in, and asked about every single solitary move I made.

What's that? (caulking gun)

What are you doing? (cleaning the walls)

Why are you doing that? (so I can paint)

You gonna paint?! (er, yeah)

What you gonna paint? (um, the walls)

Why? (because I want them to look pretty)

Can I pick some flowers? (NOOO!)

Why not? (because then there won't be any pretty flowers to look at)

My cousin picked some yesterday when you were gone. (Fuck. Oops, I mean... don't let him do that!!)

Seriously, after a few hours of this, I wanted to kill them both. I feel bad about gettting angry at them, because it's not their fault that they have nothing to do. It's not their fault that their parents are gone off to who-knows-where, and their grandmother/guardian is too lazy to play with them and basically sees me as a free babysitter when I'm working in the yard. (Who lets a three-year-old hang out alone in the yard with no fence in North Mpls for God's sake??)

Anyway, they run all over the place with no supervision, and I'm totally paranoid about it. Specifically, today I watered the boulevard garden before I left. The girls were quite interested in the hose, the spigot for which is unfortunately located on their side of my house. I did not think to remove it and bring it into the (fenced and padlocked) backyard.

Now I'm worried that they're going to turn it on and flood the yard in my absence.

Shit.