Yesterday morning, Jude (and I!) had play date with his new friend, Lucy (and her mom!). It sounds a bit kooky, but I’m still reeling from the fantastic time both Jude and I had.
Lucy is a year older than Jude and is very articulate. They had played together at the park two times prior and had gotten along fairly well, but playing in close quarters is a whole ‘nother ball game, in my experience. So, I’ll be honest: I was a bit worried at how things were going to go down. Jude is in a bit of a possessive stage, and his degree of possessiveness is indirectly proportional to the amount of sleep he has recently gotten. The past few weeks have been a bit tough in the sleep/nap department, so yesterday’s play date had a 50/50 change of being great or horrible.
I don’t want to bore you with the play by play of our friends’ three-hour visit, but I think a bullet list of all the fun things the kids did is in order:
*What they consumed:
- Apples with peanut butter
Popcorn
Coffee (moms)
Chamomile tea (kiddos)
*What they did:
- Played with Play-Doh! Lots of Play-Doh!
Jumped in and out and in and out of the ball pit
Danced!
Rode on Jude’s play car and rocking caterpillar
Cooked food in Jude’s pretend kitchen
Watched half an hour of Monsters Inc.
Jude had a BLAST and passed out as soon as our friends walked out the door. I had some great (adult!) conversation, which left me really energized for the rest of the day. I’m so, so looking forward to getting together with this family again–hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later!
I betcha there is out there somewhere a mathematical formula on kids. It would go something like this: #kids x(multiplied by) time spent /(divided by) kid’s age(s) = x (necessary adult supervision energy). You could throw in variables like “% of how muddy/dirty/safe you want each kid to be at the end of the time” and more. FUN! Glad to hear of the friends Jude has. What a guy.
Sadly, Mark, it’s never that easy. That equation would also need to take into account the amount of sleep each child had gotten the night before, whether or not each child had had a successful nap that day, the overall well being of each child, and also, the phase of the moon. Also, everything else.
It’s amazing how many times Jude and I have gotten together with friends to play under seemingly perfect conditions only to have the whole thing blow up in our faces. I really do wish there was a formula to ensure play date success!