the roads of North Carolina: a primer

We've been casually looking for houses for what feels like a decade and actively looking for a house to purchase since the beginning of this year. As we've perused online listings and driven around town, the list of streets I won't live on is growing. (I have a weird thing about street names that I actually wrote about here at length.)

In the past month, we've seen houses on Car Park Lane, Golf Course Rd., and Pinch Gut Rd. All three of those were vetoed because I just can't imagine writing any of those on every envelope I address for the next five years.

The streets here are generally free of the numbered or lettered street names (at least this far outside of Charlotte), but one trend we're noticing is that quite a few residential streets seemed to be named after people. My theory is that the person who owned the land when the street was named just named it after himself. I stopped keeping track after the first 25 roads (David Peterson Rd., John Blair St., Roy-Lee, Wilma Sigmon Pl. etc.), but some are more unusual than others. For example, last week we passed She-and-I Lane.

Another common naming technique seems to be naming the street after a church or school nearby. We currently live on Old Willis School Rd. Just down the street is another fairly large road called Philidelphia Church Rd.

The absolute best one we've found so far was Mays Chapel Church Rd. We even fell in love with a house on that street, but the owners did not feel the need to sell it to us just because our last name is Mays. (Sad day.)

In the end, we'll probably buy whichever house meets our needs best in our price range, regardless of street name, but Josh has learned that the very first thing I do when presented with a new house is analyze the spelling, pronunciation, and length of the street. (The same is true of cities. I'd much rather live in Mt. Holly or Lincolnton than Crouse or Iron Station, even though the last two are perfectly fine cities.)

Caroline's story

This afternoon, Caroline told me a story:

"Once upon a time, there was a bird that laid her egg in a nest, but she did not remember which one was hers. After she flew away, a crocodile came by and laid an egg that was yellow in the nest. Then a turtle came by and laid another egg that was orange.

So on another day, six days after, after five nights, the bird flew back and hopped onto the branch with the flower and she pecked at the crocodile egg. Inside was a baby crocodile! Then she threw it out so only a piece of shell was still there. Then she grabbed the turtle egg and threw it out, the same as the crocodile. Then she pecked the other one (the purple and red one) and where was the baby bird? There in the nest, safe and sound. So she sat on it and snuggled it. The baby bird was Caroline and the bird was actually Daddy. I just said "she" because I like girls best. The End."


And then she sang me this song:

"In the little nest
When the bird
Did not know
    Which egg was hers

A crocodile egg
A turtle egg
A bird egg
    On the ne-est

When a horse
Giddy-up
In the little treetops!

Then when she was upside down
She crazy neighed and died
Then she went upon the treetops
When she couldn't fly any longer.

Then she sang a sad song
And then she fell and hit the ground
     Very hard
But she did not die that day.

Then when she was healed,
She became the best Mommy bird.
Even the better from other Mommy birds!
Her nest was made from flowers only flowers, flowers.

But there was a bee trap where all the bees got trapped
And the king bee was trapped and the queen bee was trapped
And all the bees were go-one!"

three

Miriam wandered into our room early this morning, rubbing her eyes and trying to wake up. "The sun is up already. That means it's my birthday!" A few minutes later, after lots of hugs and happy birthdays, she asked, "So I'm three now?"

So far, her birthday meal requests are cereal and macaroni and cheese. She wants a Three Little Pigs cake (strawberry with blue frosting), but she was quick to tell me this morning that she does like cupcakes too. "Maybe I should have two cakes."

It's always fun to see which parts of a baby stick around for life. We're only three years in with Mim, but here are a few things she was just plain born with:

1. The best bed head. Every morning and after every nap, the hair in the front of her head is sticking straight out. She has hair the same color and texture (mostly) as Caroline, but Caroline's hair just doesn't stand up like that.

2. A happy disposition. Minus the regular toddler outbursts, Miriam is always happy. She was a happy baby (other than in the car) and she's a happy child now. She still doesn't love the car, but she starts every single day with a smile.

3. An affinity for music. Baby Miriam fell asleep best if I was singing to her. Three-year-old Miriam has an uncanny ability to pick out and repeat songs she's only heard once or twice.

4. A tough time getting bigger. Her pediatrician isn't worried about her weight gain anymore, but she's still a lightweight. She thinks she's moving to 3T clothes since she's 3 today, but she's barely a 2T.

Happy birthday, little M!