Making New Friends

Offspring #2 arrived home from daycare on Wednesday and, after rummaging about in her backpack, handed me an envelope. "This is for you," she announced. "It's from K's Mum. K is my friend at school and her mum sent you a letter!"

I took it from her somewhat dubiously. Bear in mind that I don't get to meet the daycare Mums. We all drop our kids off at different times and, while I know some of the kids by sight, I generally wouldn't have a clue who the mums are. From time to time she has received birthday party invites from various kids at daycare and besides not knowing the parents, I also tend to think that birthday parties for two, three and four year-olds (as the kids she mixes with at daycare are) are for family and close friends rather than random kids from daycare. Generally I tell #2 it's a picture for her from her friend and then call the parents to politely decline the invite.

To my surprise there was a note for me in the envelope and it was indeed from K's Mum. She introduced herself and went on to explain that K thought #2 was wonderful and kept badgering her Mum to invite us over so she and #2 could play. K's Mum, Mel, provided her phone number and asked me to call her if I was interested in arranging a play-date. I took a deep breath, told myself to act like a grown up and made the phone call.

Long story short. I called and Mel was just lovely on the phone. She seemed so pleased that I'd rung and we arranged a play-date for that afternoon. #2 was just about bursting with the excitement of having K come to play so when the appointed time rolled around it was something of a relief to have them pull up in the drive-way. K is the same age as #2, in fact their birthdays are barely two weeks apart, and she is so sweet. Mel is just as lovely in person as she was on the phone and we seem to have lots in common. The girls played together beautifully - they played cooking at #2's toy kitchen, they ran around the yard, played on the swings and took very good care of all the 'babies'. When it was time for them to go neither K nor #2 were particularly happy but they shared a big good-bye hug and promised they would see each other at school (ie daycare). Mel and I also agreed that we would organise another play-date soon and #2 and I are both looking forward to it.

The funniest bit? K's family live behind us and down one. Our back corner lines up with theirs. I can see two little girls hanging out at the back corner just about as soon as they work it out. And, as the girls will be going to 'big' school together before too long I'm kind of guessing there might be a step-ladder across the corner fence with two little girls, grown a bit bigger, running between houses in the years to come. Yep, that's the kind of thing that happens up here in the hills.