Social Circles

I don't think I had ever imagined a time when our kiddo would be our ticket into social circles. It is amazing how life changes. I had two hopes for when we moved to the suburbs, the first being availability of good babysitters and the second being some other couples in our age range with kids that we could become friends with. I would have taken one or the other really but I am holding out hope for both. We haven't looked into the babysitter options yet but I have been told by the neighbors that they are around. Our immediate neighbors actually have two daughters studying early childhood development at JMU so in the least when they are home on breaks perhaps we could hire them. As far as friends go I think we are lucking out. We were visited by a number of the neighbors in the first month or so and given caloric-laden gifts of baked goods. This was really wonderful but what struck me most were the notes that said "It's so nice to have another kid in the neighborhood" or "Glad to see another little boy join the neighborhood". So we are destined to be known as "Declan's parents" and I'm okay with that.

We received a note last week that there would be a neighborhood get together on Saturday evening if we were free to come for dessert, drinks and kiddo playtime. I wasn't sure what to expect. We first went to a scheduled birthday party for one of Declan's daycare friends and then stopped at the neighbors on the way back. Apparently we've been invited into a very specific social circle of three other couples whose kids range from 12 months to 8 years in age. Both Jake and I found it very easy to fit in and chit chat. Declan took a little time to open up. He first just sat kind of watching what was going on around him. Eventually he did start to play with toys that were in his immediate reach and before I knew it he was crawling all around checking out what the other kids were doing. It is a kind of girl-heavy group but he and the youngest are both boys and will be in the same class at school which will be great. I hope they get along as they grow up. The older girls were definitely playing with Declan though and showing him how some of the toys worked which was really sweet. Our son, a social butterfly, who would have thought?

The weekend was capped off with lunch out with friends yesterday and a call from our real estate agent. There's been another nibble on the condo. This actually came faster than I expected and although I'm not getting hopes up, my fingers are definitely crossed.

I can't remember if I mentioned my mission to create chewy chocolate chip cookies but I think I have found success. I made a bunch on Saturday using Land O' Lakes margarine with 80% vegetable oil and the cookies stayed chewy after they cooled. I am so excited, I can't even begin to tell you!