Bee-Swatting Bonding

It is supremely easy for my three year old to make friends. She simply goes up to every child at the park/pool/grocery store and asks: "Can I be your friend?" She asks until someone says "Yes" and then they are friends.

It's that simple.

I have been tempted to use the same strategy and approach other moms at the park with the same inquisition: "Will you be my friend?" That's what happens when you are stuck in the house all day with children under three for conversational partners. And when you live far away from family and your actual, wonderful, beautiful, Michigan-dwelling friends.

We are blessed enough to have Brad & Lisa right across the street (story to come of how that happened and our move to Indy). But sometimes they have other commitments or (gasp) other friends and aren't here to converse with me all day.

Shocking, I know.

So when Maddy and I went to the Splash Pad yesterday, I prayed before I left the car that I would meet a friend myself that day. There were two women there, both with three year old girls, so it looked promising. Since Madalyn is Miss Social Butterfly, she instantly bonded with the girls, leaving me an "in" to talk to their moms. We found out that we had all recently moved to the area, one from Cincinnati and the other from a close neighboring town, Fishers. Come to find out, they both live in the same subdivision, and one invited the other, Katie, to a sub playgroup on Friday. It made me a little sad since I wasn't included in the invitation, even if I don't live in the sub. But, as it turned out, Inviting Mom left, and Katie and I talked quite a bit more and discovered we are both RNs. Katie must have thought it wasn't kind for Inviting Mom to invite in front of me either ;), because she asked if I wanted to meet her at the park again tomorrow (today). And of course I played it cool and was like "Hmmm...let me checkmyscheduleYES!"

When we arrived at the Splash Pad today, Maddy and Katie's daughter bonded by running around with orange buckets on their heads pretending to be lions. Katie and I bonded by discussing how we both grew up taking ballet and where to enroll our daughters. And, I'll be honest, Gabe and Katie's son didn't bond. Because Gabe is only two and a half months old, see, and only bonds with those who are giving him milk or telling him "you're a handsome, handsome boy, oh yes you are."

Before we left, Katie asked if we could exchange phone numbers and do a play date next week, bringing our friendship to new soaring levels. She even swatted a pesky bee away for me while I was entering her number into my phone.

Because friends don't let bees sting friends.