Play Dates

While Lara knows a few other babies, they do not live closer than 30 minutes from us. With gas prices being as they are, and simply the fact that parents don't want to do all of that driving constantly, Lara looses out a little in the way of play dates and play groups. Although, Lara is not yet 18 months, so I don't feel any real need to have play dates more than my occassional need for some adult interaction.

Nonetheless, Lara's neighbor Macy is about 2 1/2 years old, so we have play dates with her once a week. They live about 10 feet from my back door. We have one of those small town-looking-out-our-windows-at-our-neighbors relationships: "Oh, Veronica is taking Macy to gymnastics" and "wow, Wes is home 2 hours early today! Normally he gets home at 5:51pm." That probably sounds so sad, but I think it's like that in most places for people who are observational and care a little bit about the people around them. (And, also, I'm always cooking in the kitchen with the windows open by the time Wes comes home. :-)) We are just that close.

Anyway, back to play dates. Last week was not very good. I think it started off bad because they had the dog in the house in the cage. And Lara DOES NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT LIKE DOGS. So she was super sensitive and needed everyone to be soft and gentle around her. Well, do YOU know a 2 1/2 year old who is soft and gentle?? So I'm thinking, "Wow, huge mistake, really like our neighbors, probably shouldn't come back." But we gave it another go, and thankfully, it went really well. There was no dog this time, and Macy had a new toy: a little computer, Lara's favorite. So we set up another time for next week. All is well that ends well. Or something.