Friendly fire....

When Greta was born I joined a Mom's Group, attended story hour at the library weekly, and enrolled her in a Baby and Mom music class.  In other words, I worked the network of activities associated with her age mainly to be around other people with similar lifestyles, other parents.  In this new peer group, no one ever squirmed at the descriptions of bodily fluids, they listened tirelessly to the details of sleep (or more often, lack there of it), they celebrated with me first teeth, first crawls and first words.  The support was priceless.  When Simon was born, I did very little socializing with other new Mom's.  We lived in a different town, I worked full time, Greta's school life and social life occupied my free time....  Whatever the reason, it just didn't happen, and as a result, Simon has never had any friends his own age.  

Something that provided me solace in the months leading up to this relocation was the fact that I already knew a couple of people in the area.  One was a woman who belonged to the same Mom's group that I did when Greta was an infant, therefore giving Greta a built in friend as well.  The other is a woman I've known for most of my life and I was anxious to reconnect with her and spend some more time with her family.  Her daughter Scout has become a very important person in Simon's little life.  Each day begins with him wondering if Scout will be a part of it, and if he's lucky the answer is yes.  They interact like the maniacs that toddlers are, one moment sharing a heartfelt embrace, the next, scrapping it out for whatever toy they don't really care about.  It's all so normal, and I am so happy for Simon that he has his first buddy, and selfishly for myself that I really like her Mother.