Disappointing

Yesterday, the kid got to spend a little bit over an hour with Madam President and Mr. Melania. The husband told me that when he picked her up, the three of them were sitting on the couch and all three were genuinely sad about the Kid having to go home.

All together: “awwwww…..”

I was at the neighborhood leadership academy, where I was having so much fun, that at the end, I got distracted chatting with people, and I forgot my binder! Some of my notes where in it, a lot of information that I wanted to review before next week was in it, contact information from other participants and, most important, the phone number for the special guest at my women’s meeting was in it! I realized it when I got home and my reaction was NOOOOO! Bad student! I may have to go back next week and tell my instructors that the chickens eat my homework! Immediately, I sent an email to one of the organizers, but she didn’t reply. Today I went back, but it wasn’t there. I’m hoping one of the ladies from the city grabbed it. I don’t want to nag anybody so I didn’t call today. Tomorrow I will.

On a more serious note…

The writer, baby shark’s mom, and I met a few years ago at a mommy and me class. Really, I met her husband, Chevy, first. Everyone KNOWS why that’s his nickname. We started chatting, exchanged numbers, and tried to plan a playdate but for a long time, we couldn’t make it work. I was also friends with another lady that was closer to the writer than me, but somehow the three of us, and other moms, finally met at my old regularly scheduled playground meetup.

Chatting it up, we started learning new things about each other, and the kids, who were already playing well together, and had a great time. Then we learned that we lived in the same neighborhood, maybe five blocks away from each other. After that first time, Monday mornings at the playground became a thing with us.

We invited all the moms we knew. We came up with a little stretch, warm up and exercise routine for the kids. Plus back then, we made them have a snack while one of us read a book. Some moms came on a regular basis for a while, but slowly they went back to work, or the kid started school, or Mondays weren’t good for them, and there’s only so many texts I’m gonna send out to invite you back. I try to stay in touch, but….

Since then, we have added actual school work, with crafts, and a review at the end. The kids don’t do it all of it at once, which is the good part. We work for about fifteen minutes at a time, and then the kids go play again. When they’re ready for more education they come back. Also, throughout the entire time, we play games like what letter does that start with? Name an animal that starts with that letter? What color is that? How do you say it in Spanish? Sidewalk chalks alphabet, numbers, shapes… That sort of stuff. All the moms ask these questions of all the kids, and that’s how we’re teaching them. We are at the park for a good three hours, and the kids are paying attention.

The playgrounds are picked based on restroom availability. Our original park had ok restrooms and our next playground had pretty nice bathrooms. But then Irma came and that park was closed down until maybe a few weeks ago. So the writer and I picked a new playground at random that day, closer to our neighborhood. This is where we met Pantufla.

Pantufla is the mom of two beautiful little girls. We liked them right away, and the girls and baby shark play very well together. That day we had a dinosaurs lesson, with a little craft, where the kids had to use shapes or different patterned paper to figure out how to make a dinosaur. I can’t get too much into it, because she’s a very private person as far as her children are concerned. For example, she has never put any pictures of them anywhere online. Which is her prerogative and I respect it.

The three of us changed playgrounds one more time because it was closer to us, cleaner, smaller, and easier to manage the kids. It’s our neighborhood’s main park. The three of us, and the kids have been meeting every single week since then. Sometimes more than once. There have been weeks where I think I spent Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with them. We are the only consistent moms at the playground. Other moms have started coming, but they come and go. Sometimes they show up late, and no other mom prepares a lesson. The three of us had mom dates without the kids, and we like each other. One time we were chatting, and I think the writer asked –

“Do you guys wonder why more moms don’t come at a more consistent basis?”

“Because most moms are duds!” I said. Half as a joke and half serious. But Pantufla agreed and the three of us laughed.

They both came over for the kid’s birthday and that’s when Pantufla told us: they were selling their property and Pantufla and her family were moving out of state… for good! We knew that they didn’t have any relatives close by, so they wanted to be near her sister somewhere up north. But first, they would be spending a few months in their home country. The kids don’t know it yet and we have maybe three weeks left with them. It’s understandable.

Last week, I was hanging out with the writer. We decided that we are too busy to try and start new mom friends from scratch. We talked about how we both have mom friends that we like, and we have enough social engagements and writing priorities that having to start again seems like a lot of work. We have the beginnings of a nice tribe going on (the writer, Chevy, the hot one, OMR, madam president and mr Melania, we all hang out and have a lot of fun!). The kids are older and they still get along so well. Plus we both are really busy with other things and it’s hard to find people you’re compatible with. We both got lucky that all the husbands also like each other. That’s really a hard find. That night I told the husband about the conversation we had.

“You know what you two sound like?” he asked.

“What?” I asked.

“Broken hearted. Like someone broke up with you guys and now you guys wanna take some time to yourself before getting involved again,” he laughed.

My jaw dropped. How dare he?! I’m not broken hearted! I can go get a new mom friend right now and it would be like nothing ever happened! I’m not mama-gamous! I’m completely over it! And it’s fine…We laughed it off, but I thought about it, and when the writer was here on Friday, with Chevy and baby shark I told her what the husband said to which she responded –

“Have the last six months meant nothing to her?!? Has she not seen how well these kids play together?!” she asked laughing. But it was half joking, half serious.

We are sad to be loosing our friend….

….if you guys buy enough of my book I could afford to take the kid to go visit Pantufla and the girls after they move….