Every Tuesday we go to story time at the library where Miss Eleanor, the wonderful lady who looks and speaks just like a librarian ought to, regales us with stories of ducks, dinosaurs, and trips to the beach. After story time, we usually wander over to the Children's section where there is a wall with letter magnets, a spinning book shelf, little cushions with numbers printed on them, and a few other literacy related toys.Today as we were enjoying our post-storytime playtime, a little girl and her mom wandered over. The mom sat down on the window seat and the little girl ran over the the spinning book shelf and started to help Kate spin it around. Kate is at at stage in life where she shares really well at times, and not so well at other times. I was expecting to hear the oh-so-common "MINE!" come out of Kate's mouth (she's usually pretty possessive of the bookshelf), but she and the little girl worked together and even started to giggle a little. They then moved on to another toy together. As this is happening, I looked over at the mom. She looked at me, gave a quick smile, and then looked away. In my head I'm thinking, "I wouldn't mind some adult conversation, but maybe she's not interested right now."
The girls kept playing together. Then, the mom said something to her little girl.....in Portuguese. Now I was really intrigued! In the back of my head I kept thinking, "Should I make the first move? Should I wait for her to make a move? She looks pretty enthralled with her book. " Luckily, the mom looked over at James and said, "Oh! How cute! How old is he?" All right! The ice was broken. We started up a conversation. She told me she is going to have a baby boy in a couple of months. I asked her if she was from Brazil. We talked for a while in Portuguese. We talked for a while in English. The girls played and played together. We have a fantastic time.
Then it was time to leave. I was thinking, "I really like this lady and Kate really likes this little girl! I had so much fun talking with her in Portuguese. I would really like to get together again some time! Would it be weird if I asked her to hang out again? I mean, we did just meet randomly at the library!" As this dialogue is going through my head, she says, "So, do you have an email address?"
As I was leaving I started to laugh to myself. I guess the awkwardness of first play-dates is can be just as bad as that of first dates. Or maybe it's just me.
We met a family we share many interests with and who we are now great friends with at a park in Logan. The mom made the initial contact because our children looked the same age (and were the same genders until we both had our 4th, hers was a girl). In the course of our conversation, we found out we had both attended BYU, her dad was one of my favorite professors there, and we both had hubbies who were taking their time doing their graduate program at USU. You may become lifelong friends with this family.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean! I'm glad it worked out--could be Kate's new BFF!! :)
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