Letters to Jack & Audrey: PlayDate Night

Jack,

Last night we had dinner at one of your Daddy's friend's house.

Daddy was friends with Shannon when they were in high school. They've kept in touch through the years and last night we were invited to dinner with Shannon, her husband Sean, and their son, Brennan.

Brennan is a little older than you by almost a year, but it really didn't seem to make a difference. Brennan was patient, he shared well, and he was excited to have you there playing with him.

You both had a wonderful time playing peek-a-boo under a blanket until you peeked out and I would tickle you both silly.

Shannon and Sean had made spaghetti with homemade sauce.

This isn't something you have yet experienced - homemade sauce. It smelled awesome and you were excited to get a taste.

You enjoyed having dinner with Brennan so much that you even forgot how much you HATE sitting still for mealtime and sat for the entire meal without complaint.

About 20 minutes into it, you realized we hadn't set the timer which we do at home now in order to show you that dinner won't last FOREVER as you always seem to fear that it will.

When the timer goes off, you squeal with excitement because that means you can GET UP!

And that is SUCH a relief since we don't allow you to put your feet on the floor except for once a day and that is after dinner when the alarm goes off.

Another thing that I did for the first time on this occassion is let you and another child play with each other out of my sight. This might sound a little nuts, but I've been around with you where you are playing with cousins and may be in the next room and not actively watching, but I can hear you and you are in my line of vision.

But not on this playdate night. Brennan was incredibly well behaved and I felt comfortable letting you guys play in his room while we all chatted in the family room and kitchen.

Brennan had a lot of cars and trucks like they have at the Daddy Truck Store at the Lake, so you were very excited about this and you both enjoyed crashing them and driving them on the furniture and the ground.

When the luster and attraction of the toys had worn off, the movie The Incredibles did the trick. Even with Reanna who joined into the activities with gusto and didn't even seem to recognize that the two of you referred to her as "Baby".