My kid needs his friends (and so do I)

It is a wonderful feeling to say to your child, "We are going to the park to see your friends," and to hear him sing a song of "Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea!" (literally). When we got to the park, he ran towards the playground yelling, "I'm here! I'm here! Hi everybody! I'm here!"

He was so excited because he knew that a bunch of his friends from our playgroup would be there. He has been talking about seeing these friends, particularly "Sean with the red hair," for weeks. It was a very sweet reunion, both for Vinny and for me. We had a wonderful time at the park, as well as afterward at an impromptu McDonalds lunch with one of Vinny's most favorite friends that he missed so much. :-) They played for literally hours.

See, this group is very dear to my heart. They have become sort of, well, a family to me in a way, and even though I hadn't seen some of them in months, I was reminded of what a special group of people they are and how unique it is for my child to have long-term friends when he is not even quite 4 years old. When Vinny was about 7 months old, in 2007, we joined this sort of mommy support group. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. They have been there for me, and I have tried to be there for them. Even today, one mom, whom I remember bringing dinner to when her daughter was born 2 years ago, brought me three huge boxes of hand-me-down clothes for my upcoming arrival! I love getting hand-me-downs. Practically all of Vinny's clothes are hand-me-downs from other moms in the group. Even when I was trying to finish my student teaching and my student loan money ran out just before the last week of school, 4 different moms in the group each chipped in and took Vinny for a day so that I wouldn't have to pay for that last week of day care.

It is crazy, I was thinking about it today... they were all such babies when it began, and they are all so big now.  Here are some pictures from that first year: