Playdates and Pictures

This Saturday morning posting is brought to you by The Disney Channel and Honey Nut Cheerios, two things that are allowing peace to reign throughout the house despite Lucy's 6 am wake up nonsense.

Last night we attempted our first "Happy Hour" playdate of sorts with a couple of other families we know through daycare. I don't know about all of you, but our weekends are pretty much filled with trips to various retail installations (grocery, Target, home improvement-y stores, etc) and swim lessons and around-the-house projects and the random adventurous outing inspired by guilt that we never DO anything FUN with our children. Relaxation is hard to come by, as well as any spare time to plan a playdate. Friday night we are fooled into the false sense of relief brought on by the start of the weekend (until Saturday morning, where the weekend craziness is soon revealed to equal or exceed the craziness of the work week), and we take it easy - order a pizza, have a drink (or three), skip bathtime, and enjoy ourselves. I finally had the brilliant idea that maybe this is the best time to have a playdate. The kids entertain each other rather than begging us to be all interactive and interested in superhero sagas and whatnot, and the adults get to actually talk to other adults. Win, win.

All things considered (and by all things, I mean the utter meltdown Finn had by the end that followed on the heels of about half an hour of sheer brattiness, both clearly due to overtiredness), the playdate was a success that I think we'll be repeating. The one drawback is that by 7:30 pm on a Friday night, the kids (as Finn proved) are just DONE. But of course they don't want to admit it, they want to play! All night! So getting home was a bit rough.

The other drawback is that a Friday night playdate means I overindulge just before my Saturday morning Weight Watchers weigh-in, but I figure as long as I'm pretty good Monday through Friday afternoon, it all evens out. We'll see if that holds true in another hour or so...

It's been important to me to try to get some playdates in the works lately, for a few reasons. Partly because EVERYONE seems to do playdates, so it feels a bit lame when my kid does not, even when he ASKS for them. But mostly because Finn has been telling us lately that he doesn't like school (do they all do that? How seriously should I be taking this claim?), and he's been giving his teachers a hard time and fighting with his friends more than I'd like (is this normal kid drama? I DON'T KNOW!). I want to give him an opportunity to socialize with kids that I know he likes outside of the school environment. Yes, we have some neighborhood kids that he plays with when we are all outside together, but not in a scheduled or conscious "let's be friends" way. What are your thoughts on this? How do you work playdates into your busy schedule, or do you? Do you think playdates are an important part of childhood socialization, or are they just something that parents with not enough to do to fill the day have successfully pushed on us?

I'm not saying *I* think the latter, of course. It might just be an opinion out there.

Enough blathering, now for a few photos:
What could be more fun than a big box, am I right?

Lucy in her new birthday sweater from her great-grandmother Mimi. Looks smashing with her eyes, no?

A Mother's Day morning cuddle from Lucy

We cleaned the kids up a bit for Mother's Day, which called for an attempt at a decent picture of the two of them together. This was marginally the best of the lot.

Or possibly this one. As you can see, the subjects remained uncooperative per usual, but still cute.

Finn at my Mother's Day lunch.

And Lucy, too.

This is the type of thing that can happen when you skip a nap, I guess.

My bounty from M. and the kids - beautiful flowers and a card.

My bounty from myself - an outfit from the Loft. I couldn't resist, though I perhaps should have. White linen pants is pure folly - I am rather well known for my propensity of staining all things white, and I hate ironing. But they looked so cute and summery when I tried them on that I went ahead with the purchase anyway.