Playdates

Today was a milestone in the journey of motherhood. Or at least a stepping stone I guess. Both of the boys wanted to have a friend over. This sounds completely normal, and I suppose it would be if we lived in the same place where I grew up, and used a language that I was familiar with. But things turned out a little different than I had planned (actually I hadn't really gotten around to a big PLAN when love hit me right between the eyes and dictated my next steps) and here we are, surrounded by foreign languages on every side. The one we are most involved with in our little village is french. French is very beautiful if spoken correctly! I love to hear it and most of the time, I understand about 70 percent of what is being said. That may sound like a lot, but imagine if you only got 70 percent of what someone was trying to say to you. Anyway, it leaves room for some misunderstandings. I think one of the most useful things I posess so far in life is a good sense of humor and the ability to laugh at myself. It has come in very handy! So this playdate involved our 6 year old son calling up his friend, Mathieu, and asking him if he would like to come over and play, and then handing the phone to me to arrange the details with his mom. Now you must understand that I have had one previous experience turn out a little strangely so I realized that there was not just a language barrier here but also an intricate playdate chronological order that I missed the first time around. The first time around, Hannes was invited over to a friend's house and it turned out that her mother brought him back a half an hour later. She had said something to me after she came to get Hannes that I didn't really understand and rather than say, uh, duh? I just smiled and assumed she would bring him back a few hours later. I did go in the house and look up the word she used and it meant 'chimney sweep' so I was sure I was wrong. So, I wanted everything to be right for the first official playdate at our house. Dylan's choice was to invite Ulysse, a boy several years ahead of Dylan but his friend and hero none-the-less. I consulted the boys as to what we should make for lunch and everything. So back to the phone conversation. It went just fine, Mathieu and Ulysse were to come home with the boys after school and I would bring them home around 3. All went well in spite of me having butterflies in my tummy for all of us but especially for me, mom extrordinaire, exploring new territory.