Delusional Mommy Part I

What on earth was I thinking? H has developed two good friends with two boys at his school. Even at this tender age, it appears there are divisions in the group of only 7 kids - 5 boys (heaven help the teacher) and 2 girls. Obviously the girls play together often but the boys, well there is the three musketeers and the two others.

"H do you play with M?"
"No, he hits me."
"H, do you play with J?"
"No. I don't like him."

So once it became clear there is a definite preference for friends, I asked like any well intentioned Mommy if he would like to have one of his friend over to the house. He thought about it for a while and then it became a frequent request.

"Mommy, I want S and T to come to H house." 
"Well, let's start with one friend, ok?"
"I want T to come to H's house."
"How about we start with S?" I don't know T's mom, have never met the dad, fortunately thanks to the school directory I do know where they live and we are all on an email list - you know for school functions.  So far, we have had "Western Day" and now its "Fall Festival" time and our "class" has a booth (I haven't volunteered anything for that one yet) but I do not know anything else about the parents. As an aside, I signed up for the "Gardening Committee" as it appeared to be only three people and something I could do in grungy clothes. No one has contacted me yet so it was a pretty good choice!

Now, both S's parents work and the family makeup is similar to ours with significantly older siblings but S is not adopted. S is also soon to have a younger sibling. 

Anyhow, now that we no longer go to daycare, we/I have no holidays to myself. I panicked one day when I looked at the school calendar and realized just how many days off the kids get! This of course means either I stay home with H or in some cases, H gets to go to the office (and I get very little done.)

The opportunity presented itself  to ask S's mom if he could come over and play with H on Columbus Day. She said yes and his dad would bring him over. I thought GREAT! What could be better? I suggested a morning drop off to keep with the lunch and nap schedule. In my head, I was thinking of ALL the things I could do while two THREE YEAR OLD BOYS (yeah, keep that phrase in your mind) played together. Would I be able to finally iron (shirts only get ironed when my mother-in-law comes to visit - it makes me feel bad but she hates to sit around so I take her up on the offer to do something), clean the bathroom, pull some weeds, wipe the floors? Oh, the possibilities were endless.

I have to insert here, there was no discussion about coming by, seeing the house, making acquaintances, checking things out. They got the address and agreed to a date and time. I have to confess, the reason I agreed to have a friend come here is I do not yet trust any other parent with my child. Is that so awful?

I have been presented with some really outlandish (to me and my midwestern sensibilities) plans to have H whisked off to various places by others...ummmmm NO. I'm not paranoid. Really. A) I know my kid and he would not go with anyone else except a grandparent without some introductory period; B) no one has asked about particulars of how we raise our son - I ask about various things like food, pets, etc. and all I get in response is - nope, he'll be fine; C) have I mentioned I do not trust my kid with anyone else? I have never met these people outside of context and I do no know who they habituate with outside of that context. Go ahead parents, weigh in on that one!

Anyhow, the entire weekend was cold. Yup, we had a 20 degree differential. I was so hoping to just let the boys loose with the hose in the backyard with trucks, mud, and kiddie pool. After all, this is NE TX and fall doesn't really mean cold. Nope. It was cold and gray - strike one.

H was sick (different post) and had a faucet for a nose Monday - strike two.

Drop off time came and went. No calls. I kept wandering to the door to see if there was a car in the driveway. H wanted to play. I was distracted. H wasn't feeling so chipper but I couldn't give him anything or else he would be sleepy if they did arrive. If I knew they weren't coming, I would have made different plans (and lounged in my pj's a bit.) Turns out S's dad got caught up working and couldn't do the earlier drop off. He called and said "I didn't receive a response to my text so I thought I would call. Text? Look, I gave you may home phone number which only three people on the planet have so if you needed to call me I would hear the phone. I'm home, my other phones (yes, plural) are somewhere else. He's a self-employed works from home guy in technology so he's attached at the hip to his phone.. Anyway. we spent the time wondering when our guest might arrive - foul ball.