Toddler Playdates

I downloaded the pics off my cell phone today, so I can finally post, yay! (Side note: as it turns out, my cell phone takes nicer pictures than my old point 'n shoot. Senpai has a DSLR, which I'm sure would take infinitely better photos than both aforementioned devices, but I always have my cell phone in my pocket, DSLR.. not so much. Sprint Galaxy S for the win!)


I finally get to touch on a topic I had wanted to mention before: friends. R has friends. It's actually stressful for little toddler friends to play together at this age; they don't know how to do it yet. One kid takes the toy the other kid was playing with, then that kid retaliates by hitting and screaming. That same scenario plays out over and over again with the roles constantly shifting and changing, so no one kid can by any means be called innocent. But these are lessons that have to be learned. One day, both kids will know how to take turns, ask if they may play with a certain toy, and cooperatively play together. That's when the Mommies will be able to sit back with our coffees, chat, and relax. For now, we wear referee hats, call time outs, and negotiate terms for peaceful play. I so look forward to the future in this department. ^_^


R has had several playdates recently. The first-- I had mentioned before-- was when R wouldn't nap one day, and my wonderful friend Natalie brought her son over to play. (Though I usually don't mention names here, I will use Natalie's because I want to direct your attention to her lovely blog, NatoBottoArt: Creations from the Heart. She does a lot of stream of consciousness writing as she works through her creative process. Definitely check it out!) She mentions her son's name on her blog (and I've mentioned R's name here, too, but I still don't think I'm entirely ready to just dish it out every post), but here, I will call him I* (The asterisk is so you know I'm not referring to myself). Now that we've gotten that straightened out, back to the playdate...


R, Natalie, and I*. R had not been interested in her Wheelie Tiger for a long time until I* came along and started to ride it. All of a sudden, she likes her Wheelie Tiger again.

I love this picture! I* is a multifaceted boy, dishing out free hugs one second, and then finding new uses for xylophone mallets the next. ^_^ Here is one such hug. R has this look like, "What is he doing?" Haha, I could get really creative with the captions for this! How about, "Not cool, man. Not cool." Anyone else have a caption for this picture they want to share?


Next, she went to a Potty Party. One lady from the Mom's Group I'm a member of posted a Potty Party on the calendar. I just had to check it out! It was a small group of three mother/daughter pairs including the hosts. I'm pulling a lot of what I said in the opening paragraph from this get together, because we three moms kept trying to share potty and parenting tips amongst ourselves, but not one of us could finish a thought without breaking up a toddler fight. Though the potty aspect of the party was downplayed, it was still a fun playdate for everyone involved.

This is the only pic I took, and it was at the end of the party. All three girls were given favor bags and tiaras for being potty princesses. R had decided she didn't want to sit with the other girls right as I was snapping the shot. Oh well. At least she wore her crown. :-)


The last playdate was with R's friend, A. I've been taking R to Barnes & Noble Storytime ever since she turned one year old. I can't remember if A had been there right from the start, but pretty early on in our Storytime career, A's mom started talking to me and the little girls hit it off. I'll go more in depth into their relationship in another post (with adorable pics of them holding hands, aww!), but for now I'll focus on the playdate. Unfortunately, I only took one pic of this event, too, and it was when both girls' faces were hidden, sigh.



A's mom and I had been planning this playdate for awhile. We finally got our acts together last week. This playdate was the most low-key of them all because R was too busy climbing on me to mind what toys A was finding to play with. Except for when we went upstairs to show R's room to A and her mom. A wanted to push the buttons on R's musical nightlight, but R would not allow it. As the nightlight is actually a base to a baby mobile, I need to somehow wean R off of it before her baby sister comes! This playdate ended with lunch at a yummy Mexican restaurant. Heehee, I could use more playdates like this one. ;-)