Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
I met up with some friends from high school earlier this week.  We try to keep in touch often.  Sometimes months go by without any communication, but we always pick right back up the next time we speak.  Social media also helps us stay in touch since we all live in different places making it difficult to visit each other on a regular basis.

My gracious friend offered her home as a meeting place.  We all brought our kids along so they could play together as well.  I was happy to meet my friend’s daughter for the first time.  Miraculously, all the kids got along very well.  The host of our get together has a house full of toys.  Needless to say the kids had an endless supply of entertainment.  While the kids played, my friends and I caught up on our lives and enjoyed watching the children play.

At this point, all my friends are married and have kids.  Most of us have more than one child.  It’s funny to listen to our conversations.  Ninety five percent of them are related to parenting while the other five percent is spent planning a girl’s trip in the future or sharing stories from our past.  One of these years a fun trip will happen!   Since we’ve all been a parent for several years now, it’s nice to get other views on parenting issues.  I’m always open to new suggestions about how to cope with lack of sleep, discipline, a strong willed child, and making sure my school aged son is right on track with his academics.

I’ve known my friends for many years.  One of them went to nursery school with me.  It’s so nice to reunite with them whenever possible even if it’s only once a year.  I crave the adult conversation and relaxing environment.  We make the most of our visit and joke about who will have another child by the next time we meet.  I hope we continue our visits well into the future.  Before we know it, we’ll be discussing college and who has a wedding to help plan.

From Monday Mom – Neetika:
Joe’s cousin is getting married next summer in Italy. Naturally, we have begun to wonder if we will be able to take the trip. Of course it would depend on many factors, the biggest of which is what to do about “the baby.” We could probably leave him or her with my parents or Joe’s, though I don’t know how I would deal with that emotionally. Or, we could be adventurous and set off to Europe with the little one!

I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but it did get me thinking about trips I have taken as a youngster. One of the most memorable is a trip I took to the French Open with my dad 17 years ago. When I was a kid, I played a lot of tennis. At my club, there was a contest posted in which you guessed the winners of the US Open that year, and the grand prize was a trip to Paris.

With nothing better to do between court times, I filled out maybe a dozen of these forms. I entered with the actual winners of the tournament a few times, not because I am a sports betting prodigy, but because Sampras and Graf won that year. They dominated the sport at the time. I had just forgotten about the contest when I got the call that I had won the Fila Grand Slam Summer Sweepstakes. Actually my father won. I was smart enough to put the name of someone over 18 on the entry forms.

So off to Paris he and I went, and it was wonderful—luxury accommodations all the way, and tickets to the famous Roland Garros stadium for the final rounds of the French Open. It was fabulous fun for a tennis-obsessed tween like me. And I also gained one of the best “what a coincidence” stories I ever heard.

One morning as we were settling into our seats at the stadium, a kindly man sat next to me and said something to me in French. Not knowing the language, I was freaked out. He quickly realized I was American and then spoke in English. He was really nice and he, my dad, and I got to talking. We told him we were from the New York area, and he said his son married a girl from New York named Rachel. My father and I said, “Oh, that’s nice” and didn’t think much of it.

Then he said that Rachel’s father was a doctor. That piqued our interest, because my father is also a doctor. The nice French man then mentioned the name of the hospital at which the Rachel’s father worked, and we were stunned. It was my dad’s hospital too. It turned out the doctor the man was talking about had been a friend and colleague of my father’s for about 15 years! I couldn’t believe it. What were the chances of this man sitting right next to us in this huge, famous venue, and us striking up a conversation?

Rachel’s father passed away last week. Several years ago, her brother had taken care over their father’s obstetrical practice, and he will be delivering my baby in the next few days. It is a small world after all.

Editor’s Note: Shortly after writing this post, Neetika gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Our congratulations!