Making new friends

Bailey is learning how to make new friends, both at day care and at home, these days. It's interesting to watch her go through this stage... the oldest child syndrome comes out at home...

My long-time friend Cheryl, whose blog is here (she has a great write up about our day together and some photos, so check it out), and I have been trying to make more time to get together, with or without our little ones, for a couple of years now. We've only managed to see each other about five times in the past 2+ years that Brad and I have been back in Lexington. I guess when there are five children three years old and under, it's kind of tough. :) Thank goodness for these blogs... otherwise we'd need a full year to get caught up. Anyway... we finally managed to get the kids together for a fun play date at our house.

Cheryl arrived with her boys and lunch from McDonald's (children's choice, although we didn't mind some fries). Bailey was overly excited about her friend, the new Connor, as she calls him (her other best friend is also named Konner). She greeted him and Alexander and Sawyer before they could get completely out of the car, totally invading their personal space, and probably making them just a little uneasy about what to expect. Well... that was probably the nicest she was all day. Unfortunately for me and Cheryl, Bailey was having a tired day and everything and anything that poor Connor did was worthy of tears in Bailey's mind. I don't know how many times I looked up to see her puckering up or yelling or tattling that Connor was doing something. After several attempts to try and make her stop with the whiny behavior, I just gave up. I'm sure that the other kids and Cheryl probably wondered if she is always like this. Thank goodness that Cheryl and I are good enough friends that I'm sure she will give Bailey at least one more try before she rules her out as a bad influence on her little men! :)

Other than the fact that Bailey was being overly whiny, the day was really nice. The kids enjoyed playing in the baby pool, the sandbox, and the swingset. Cheryl and I really enjoyed catching up and talking about our wild children, even when we were dodging balls, enforcing sharing and timeouts, and wiping runny noses. :) Her little ones are great children. Connor, the oldest, reminds me so much of Bailey. They are the headstrong, oldest children. And you can tell that they both are used to ruling the roost. Both of them spent more time worrying about what the other one was playing with than truly enjoying the toy they had. Making friends is tough when you're so much alike, but I think by the end of the day they were getting the hang of it. :) Alexander and Sawyer (twins) did great. Alexander loved to play with balls and seemed easy to please and able to entertain himself. Sawyer, while I should probably not admit it, was my favorite of the three. He was the sweetest little guy, and probably tied with Jake for the best behaved of all five. All he wanted to do was sort and organize the play-doh, the chalk, the balls, and rings. He would be a babysitter's dream child. Give him some like items and he's set for hours. Jake, of course, was completely overwhelmed by everything. He wasn't sure if he should try to jump in on the action, or try to find a safe place to hide. He spent most of the day hanging out with me and Cheryl, flirting with Cheryl and playing peek-a-boo with the blinds. Oh... and he got spoiled with Coke from McDonald's when Bailey wasn't paying attention.

It was great to have friends over, and something I hope that we get to do a lot more now that we're all able to get out and go more. Contrary to what one might think, Bailey definitely had a good time. I heard all about her missing the "new Connor" all evening. She was telling me big stories about getting to go to his house to play. She is also excited to see the twins, who she calls "the little Kadens." (Point of reference: Kaden is her other friend, Konner's, younger brother.) I think a few more playdates and we won't be spending time trying to referee her disagreements with the "new Connor" and she'll even play more with the "little Kadens."