Friday, May 17, 2013

Extreme Playdate Extravaganza!


It is difficult to talk about my life without mentioning my girlfriends whom I've recently blogged about regarding our mom dates. We are more than the mothers of our children who come together for playdates. We are best friends, we support each other, we complain to each other about the big and little things without any concern over judgment and each moment I share with them, with and without our kids, is a direct reminder of "this too shall pass." Reason being that we have all had similar experiences with our families at one point or another that we can all advise each other on or at least provide some insight to one another.

Now, I'd like to discuss a little something called playdates. I recall my mom getting together with a few filipino friends with me in tow and playing with their kids but my mom wasn't a stay at home mom and I certainly didn't have weekly playdates with the same crew for my toddler years. Maybe that was just me or perhaps it's a shift in generations but playdates are among us and they are frequent and loaded with kids, not even all of our own! What started as Aimee and I meeting at our townhome complex and through library group with her son and my daughter grew into the addition of Sam and her daughter, courtesy of Aimee's introductions. Next, Aimee added another sweet little boy to her family and Sam is currently on her way to welcoming a little girl. The last piece to the puzzle seemed to be Kelly, who has her daughter Alyssa, her boyfriend's son Evan and the slew of children she babysits, but we mostly see Josh. I too took on babysitting again and, so, have added two infant boys to our crew. That is 9 children  (6 toddlers, 1 crawler and 2 infants!) with one on the way to the 4 mommies. I'm sure that doesn't sound too wild but we are not the type that are arranging once a week gatherings at someone's house, so peaceful, so lovely. No, no, no.


We go extreme.


There are days where I can be found pushing a double stroller with 2 children over 20lbs as well as an infant strapped to my chest an the steep uphills that are my only access to town. On days such as this I am often joined by Kelly or Sam who have anywhere from 1 to 4 of their own and we may invade our local bakery or just take over a perfectly serene park. With our unmatched patience you may often find us with each others kids, just for the sake of helping each other out. Aimee may bewiping up the ever present spit up of a baby I care for while I happen to be tending to her little one's neverending hunger, that boy can put food down! Kelly may be halting toddler wars (swatting with plastic golf clubs or what have you) between two children not her own while Sam can be found providing storytime to the children who suprisingly are sitting still for more than 5 minutes. Somewhere in all of this we manage to eat lunch.... let's not forget that I haven't included all of the diaper changes, pee-pee accidents, scrapes and the constant questions ...

I find it difficult to explain the exact range of emotions we, the moms, go through during these 2-4 times a week gatherings but I can assure you we go through complete mindless reactions, to controlled red-in-the-face rage, to laughing, to, "OMG.... seriously ..."

By the grace of God, truly, we always manage to show up with smiles and leave with smiles. Mostly because we are so endlessly grateful for the friendships (which seem so much more than that already complex word, perhaps I should call it momships ..) we have, the fact that we can go through what we go through together and that our children and the children we care for have a solid example of where strong bonds with others can take you! Mom on!





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