Play date

Max and I met up with some friends and 10 new babies.

Beforehand, I was concerned about Max's first big play date. How would he interact with the other children? Would he be a bully? Would he be a wimp? Would he share? Would he be an outsider?

Upon arrival, I set him down and he plowed past adult legs and baby accouterments to arrive on a play mat covered in toys. Sitting on the mat was Libby, an adorable little girl just a couple of weeks older than Max. Eying each other, they played side by side for a while. Thank goodness she has an older brother, though. Because when things got physical she knew how to take care of herself. Max is new at kissing and likes to try to kiss the top of our heads. (He also likes to pull hair, but none of the older children had enough to endanger them and the teeny-tinies were usually protected by carriers or mother's arms.) He tried kissing her, and climbed over her to get to her head. He left slobber all over her and made her cry.

Actually, he left slobber a lot of places. I think he's teething again. I hope he wasn't trying to use her cute little head as a teething biscuit.

Nonetheless, he tried making up to her later. Extending his dimpled arm, he offered her a ball. She looked at it and crawled away. He stared after her. I swear he shrugged before looking at the ball and cramming it in his mouth with his pudgy hand. I was happy to see that he took rejection in stride.

Allison, the oldest little girl was our hostess. Toddling around in her pink dress, she greeted everyone and offered her toys. I was handed a puzzle piece of the soft mat, which I don't think I'm smart enough to piece together. She looked genuinely happy to have so many children playing with her things. Of course, the most gleeful expression I saw was when one of the cats appeared and she tore off after it. Those cats knew just how to move to avoid her...and later to avoid Max who found patting their noses a new favorite pasttime.

Babies abounded. Two sets of twins arrived. Each set was a boy and a girl. Two baby singlets were there, too. Max was enthralled. All the babies were dressed so cute. Max definitely has a thing for shoes, which is strange since I can't even seem to keep a pair of socks on the kid. At least two times I caught him nibbling on baby shoes. Luckily, the babies were too young to fear for their toes. A few times I caught him peering into the face of a sleeping baby. His face was close enough to kiss them...but he didn't. Whew! One of the times, little Haley wasn't sleeping, but she didn't seem to mind. She just stared right back at him.

One of the teeny-tinies began to cry. (Max had nothing to do with it.) A chorus of babies joined that single cry. At this point, Max had crawled under the high chair like he does at home. When they cried, he looked up at me and blinked. He looked confused like he wasn't sure if he should join or not. However, the high chair distracted him so tears were avoided.

At another point, all the babies needed changing at the same time--except one. Avery's mom teased that she only changes her diaper once a day. I need to learn that trick. Avery is a few months older than Max. He was enamoured with her. They took off crawling after each other. I was concerned that he was too aggressive, but like Libby, Avery knew how to take care of herself. Max likes the spunky girls.

I look forward to another playdate. Hopefully, some of our other friends will be able to join us. Since Toral is moving her twins all the way to Florida, it might be a while before we get to see them. But I'm hopeful.

After all, we know miracles happen.