Play dates

One of the best things about stay-at-home-mommyhood? The play date.

Sure, most of your conversations are spliced with, "Don't touch that!" "No" or "Please take that out of your mouth," but at least you're around other adults.

I feel a camaraderie at play dates. Other moms are going through it, too. How nice to see other people's kids crying, running and generally going nuts! It's not just me!

Plus, they're super entertaining. I love seeing the imaginations of children at play. Take this photo for instance:

SA made about 50 different uses for this cat's toy. This particular shot is her Western-themed lasso. I love the one foot planted in front of the other so she can be stable while she's whirling that thing around. She ended up naming this toy the "cat distracter," as we found out the next time she came over, b/c her first question was, "Where's the cat distracter?"

And here's brother showing off for the ladies- I think Caitlyn likes his song and dance.

And...nanny extraordinaire: the kids adore her!

You've hit play date gold when the kids entertain each other for 15 minutes or more. It's funny that when those moments actually happen, we don't really know what to do. Should we still talk in broken conversation? This seems too good to be true- surely they're up to no good. Better go check.

I guess you get the "they play by themselves" effect when you have multiple kids...but I'm not convinced that's they way to go yet. Zoe's a teething monster right now (picture to come) and I could not possibly handle throwing another one into the mix. A friend asked me if we were "trying" again- I almost fainted. or died. Either way, it made me want to enjoy the 1 for a while before we have anymore chaos.

Play date chaos will do just fine for now!