My cousin, her husband, and her toddler (a boy who is almost exactly one year younger than Pumpkin) were here visiting over the weekend. We had a great time, which I won't describe in any detail because I'm lazy.
We went out to dinner to our local pizza joint on Friday night. The restaurant has a play area for the kids, so it is a great place to go with children. The new toys keep them distracted until the food arrives. While we were getting ready to eat, Pumpkin looked up and said "Oh! There's A. with his Mommy and Daddy!" Now, A's name sounds a lot like my cousin's son's name, so we said, "Yes. B. is here with his Mommy and Daddy, D. and N." Pumpkin shook her head and said "No. There's A. Over they-er." (All words ending with the -air sound are two syllable right now.) We looked over to a neighboring table, and recognized the little boy who was sitting there. Hubby recognized the Daddy, too. The little boy goes to Pumpkin's day care. He is in the 18 month-2 year room (Pumpkin is now in the 2-2.5 year room). I asked Pumpkin if she wanted to go say hello, and she did, so we went over to the other table and chatted for a minute. Then we went back to our table, shaking our heads at the fact that she knows all the kids (and their Mommies and Daddies) by sight, and can name the kids and associate them with the correct Mommies and Daddies. We, on the other hand, struggle to remember which grown ups go with which kids and to put names to cute little faces.
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On Saturday, we went to the beach. We had arranged a play date with two of our friends from Pumpkin's day care before the visit by my cousin was set up, and my cousin said it was fine to go ahead with it, since they wanted to go to the beach, too. Then one of the other day care Mommies decided that we should invite Pumpkin's entire day care class, which we did. Three other kids showed up. We had a blast. It was fun to watch the kids interact with each other. It was particularly fun to watch the reaction as each new child arrived. Pumpkin would call out "Oh! Its E!" and then run over to greet the newcomer. She is clearly a very social little girl.
While the kids splashed in the shallow water and played in the sand, the parents started to get to know each other. By the end, we all agreed that we should arrange these "class play dates" more often. It is nice to talk to other parents who have similar careers (Pumpkin's day care is near an area of San Diego known for its concentration of a high tech and biotech companies). Yes, we were networking through our children.
Sometimes, you just luck into a nice group. Make the most of it.
ReplyDeleteI had that good fortune this past year with my youngest. All the mommies have careers. And the one mommy who didn't work declared she did research in art. Interesting that she felt like she had to say she did something productive outside the home. With my older kid the group of mommies is exactly the opposite. They make careers of caring for their kids and do it with a scietific precision.
Yes, we did that, too.
ReplyDeleteI organized "single mom night" by hanging out at the daycare center at closing time. Several of the parents traveled a great deal for work. The parent at home would then pick up at the last possible moment so they could do drop off and pickup and squeeze in a full workday.
Anyway, several dads belonged to the single mom club. We'd meet and then walk over to one of the many casual ethnic eateries in our neighborhood. Sometimes, we ordered takeout and walked over to my house to eat.
Several parents exchanged cell phone numbers so that we could pick up each others kids in emergencies (LA traffic). It made for a good network and my kid still plays with those kids.
I love when I walk across the parking lot at daycare, and a million little kids clinging to the fence run off yelling, "Munchkin! It's your mom!" and also, when they talk to me, they actually address me like that, "Um, excuse me! Munchkin's Mom! Can you help me wipe my bum?"
ReplyDelete(I don't think they're rhyming on purpose, though ...)