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Location: Northern California

Friday, September 02, 2005

 

I gotta say it was a good day

Today was another day filled with kiddy events and activities. This morning I was feeling a deep need to be with others because of my despair over the situation in New Orleans. By 9 AM I was showered and extremely anxious to leave the house. The kids were anxious, too; I think they were picking up on my energy. Emily kept saying, “We go, we go, we go!”

So we went. Our first stop was Friday playgroup. This is Emily’s playgroup, a group that’s been meeting now for about a year and a half. There is a core group of original members, of which I am one, and various new members that come and go. The playgroup was started by my mommy friend Liz. We met in a Strollerobics class, of all places. Friday playgroup has been picking up lately thanks to an influx of new mommies and kids. I love Friday playgroup! It’s wonderful to chat with people who are older than two.

There were eight moms and eleven kids in attendance today. One mom was watching her friend’s toddler and one mom has triplets. Let me repeat that. One mom has TRIPLETS. I feel like making the sign of the cross after I write that. Lord help that mommy.

Being a mom to triplets is like hosting your own playgroup. Every day. Oh, and having none of the other parents show up. Watching this woman change diaper after diaper, deal with food crisis after food crisis, heal boo boo after boo boo, pick up spill after spill, and answer the call of “Mama, Mama, Mama” over and over again made me realize that even with my two spaced only seventeen months apart, I am a lucky woman to have birthed singletons. And to think I had once asked the Fertility Goddess for twins. *Shiver*.

After spending close to three hours trashing my friend Jennie’s house, the kids were tired and we left. They fell asleep on the way home and I was able to transfer them to their respective sleeping receptacles were they napped for almost two hours. Hallelujah! I enjoyed a peaceful lunch of leftovers while perusing the Internet.

After lunch the kids helped (insert hysterical laughter here) me bag up a bunch of Thomas’s old baby clothes so we could donate them to my mothers’ club for its annual fundraising rummage sale. It’s always a little heartbreaking to give away your baby’s old clothes. My baby’s growing up! Good think he’ll always be my baby.

In the afternoon we headed over to our local Junior Gym, one of those indoor child play areas that feature big mats and balls and gym equipment. Emily had a blast and Thomas liked it, too. We’ll definitely be going back, especially when winter rolls around and it’s too rainy to go to the playground.

My friend Jennie, new friend Theresa (triplets mom), and I finished the day with a moms’ dinner out. That was hysterical, if dining with three moms and six kids can be considered funny at all. But it was fun because it’s always fun to hang out with other moms who understand that dinner must be eaten at lightening speed and spills will happen. Also they know to expect lots of whining. And one of them usually has a bag of snacks that can suffice as an appetizer to (hopefully) help console an angry toddler who isn’t used to waiting even two minutes for his or her food. I’m sure the people around us were wishing they had picked another restaurant, but we had a good time.

After ruining the restaurant and leaving the waitress a bigger-than-usual tip, the kids and I made our way home to daddy. Both kids were spent and ready for baths and bedtime.

I love days like this.