Thank you Miss J

I know I give Miss J a bad rap most of the time.  Her first year really, really sucked for everyone involved.  She screamed all the time.  In the odd moment that she wasn't screaming, she looked like she would erupt in a pissed off tantrum at any second.  I still haven't recovered from that year completely.  When I see babies now, I'm afraid if I look at them wrong, they'll erupt in pissed off shrieking.

But overall, she's a pretty good kid now.  In stores she's pretty darn good.  There are those kids that run off, and there are the ones that have major tantrums, and there are the ones that take stuff off shelves.  She doesn't really do that stuff.  She won't sit in carts, but she'll hold your hand and walk along with you.  She doesn't run away; we haven't even contemplated getting her a kid leash.

Since we've moved, we've never childproofed the new house.  It just wasn't needed.  No toilet locks, no cabinet locks, we leave breakable stuff out in reach and she knows not to mess with it.  Of course little accidents happen, like she bumps her head on things (because she got my lack of grace).  Our white couch is still white, no major spills, she's never broken anything of ours.  She's broken some of her toys, but nothing that is technically ours.  We've broken our own stuff more than she ever has.

So tonight we had the 2 couples over with their 3 kids.  One couple has one kid, and the other couple has two kids.  First of all, it went pretty well.  It's hectic, as expected, when you have to take care of getting dinner for 4 kids.  They are natural conversation pieces, though, plus all of the kids go to the same daycare.  Then there's the parenting class we attended.  Then there's simply learning about what each other does as a profession.  So really there's no lull in the conversation, especially when you're taking care of the kids on top of all that.

I do appreciate Julia so much after it.  She is rather reticent to mingle with the other kids, so she mostly stays close to us.  I wish she would be more outgoing, but I understand her shyness.  I really do.  We knew the boy was pretty wild.  And he didn't disappoint.  Running cars all over, reaching for things on shelves, breaking a glass.  Ugh, yes, shattering glass everywhere.  Luckily no one was hurt, but he knocked a glass off the table breaking it and splattering soda everywhere.  It was a pain to clean up, and I swear you are never completely sure you picked up all the glass.  The girl was bossy.  Smart, but bossy.  Julia sat on our lap most of the time, taking turns looking at the destructive boy and the bossy girl. 

So thank you, Julia, for not being destructive and not being bossy (at least so far).

It was a nice evening.  As I predicted, the lady that was my age is very, very girly.  She watches the Real Housewives, as we learned from out TV trivia game.  I know the 90s teen dramas (a la Dawson's Creek).  The older couple husband has the cop shows from the 60s and 70s.    

Can't wait to do another fun night like that again, maybe next time sans kids!