Watching Zoey Play

I am so lucky that I have the chance to see Zoey play with her friends on any given day.  I'm not stuck at work wondering what she's doing or how she acts around her peers.  I get to witness it first hand.  I am so thankful that our situation has allowed me this time.

Watching Zoey play over the last few weeks, I've noticed just how much she has blossomed and really "come into her own".  She no longer needs me to play with her when her friends are around and hardly even plays in the same room that I am in when she has a three-year-old playmate to romp around with.  I think we've officially entered the Big Kid Stage.  More independent.  More creative.  More outgoing and social.  More interactive, talkative, and just plain fun.

Zoey loves her friends.  Most days, whether we are going to a friend's house or a friend is coming here, she says "I'm so scited" at least once before the play date begins.  And then, when we pull in to their driveway or a car shows up here, there is usually a squeal of delight.  She really does LOVE her friends.  And it doesn't matter which friend it is or the type of "play" that will be involved...she just wants to interact with someone her own size.  And, boy, do they play!

During the course of a week, Zoey will run wildly around a house with a friend right by her side, sit in a bedroom (often with the door closed) playing with Barbies or creating other imaginative situations, color and "do art" calmly at a kitchen table, and insist that a friend chase her...and beg until it happens.  She plays in pools and sprinklers, with dolls and dress up clothes, in tennis shoes and bare feet.  She sweats, she smiles, she screams, and she snuggles...often all in the course of one get together.  She makes herself at home in friends' houses because these friends have become more like extended family than just friends.  She'll throw off her shoes, run upstairs, and start playing before I can even say hello.  Zoey loves her friends.

And then, I also get to experience the "village" when my friends feed Zoey, help her put on her shoes, bandage up a cut or boo-boo, and treat her just as they do their own.  Its amazing because I love their kids and they love mine just like family.  I guess years of friendship does that.  We swap babies, tend to whoever is crying, and solve problems regardless of who the instigator is.  When we're together, they are all "our" children...and that feels good.

So...that's what I'm going to miss.  I'm terrified that just as Zoey has established these real friendships, I'm taking her away from them and she'll forget all about them.  My village has come a long way and we've worked hard to build a strong network - and now one part is leaving.  I'm sad that we have to go and start all over.  I'm worried that Zoey will forget about the fun she has with these friends - the friends we will be coming home to and the friends we love so much.  I'm scared these relationships will lose their closeness and their spunk and that the comfort Zoey has with these kids and their Moms will slowly disappear.  And, I don't want to miss all the growing up - all the little moments - that my friends' kids will do over the next two years.  I love these kids, too, and I don't want to say goodbye to them.  I will miss the running, the chasing, the giggling, the make-believe, and the chitter-chatter that Zoey does with these friends - our extended family.  I know it will be replaced for awhile with the same play with other kids, but I don't want it to end with these friends that we spend so much time with.  Each of these little friends has a piece of my heart...I saw them as newborns, celebrated first birthdays with them, watched them take their first wobbly steps, and now listen from afar as they have real conversations with my little girl.  It will be hard to say goodbye.

To Zoey's little friends and their Mamas...we love you and we will miss you.  Weeks won't be the same without the texts of "are you free to play on Tuesday" and "your house or mine?"  You mean the world to us and we will be anxiously awaiting the play dates when we come back home.