kaleidoscoping chaos...: PACE, Playgroup & Passover Cake...

When Jonah was born I took a "class" called P.A.C.E. Moms. A number of DC moms had recommended it to me. It was basically a 'mommy & me' class for urban moms with their first children in Washington DC. We started when Jonah was about 2 mos, I think. We were 10 moms and 12 babies (2 sets of twins). We sat on the floor with our babies. We had these looks on our faces like we hadn't slept in months and these crazy looks in our eyes that just screamed, "what they hell is going on and what are we doing???" The class was once a week for 2 hours for ten weeks. It was one of the best things that I ever did. I needed it so much. Just to have a place to talk and listen to other moms and realize that you weren't the only one who thought, "yes, this is a wonderful experience, but it is also f-king hard." Anyway, since then I have tried to remain friends with many of my "first" mom friends and I have met other moms through them. There is this one group of stay-at-home moms that I have been in a playgroup with for the past three years. The group has had members come and go. I myself took a leave of absence when we moved to Chicago for 6 mos (surely there will be future post on that little adventure), another hiatus when I was battling breast cancer last year (yes, I am sure another post will deal with that...) and most recently when we bowed out for about a month because we had to escape our old condo due to a rodent problem and live in Baltimore (yes, another post on that adventure as well).

Here is how it works: each round of playgroup, we (one of the moms-the same one-always does this-she is totally awesome for doing so) set up a schedule and each mom takes a week and we visit at each's house for few hours, usually in the morning around 10-12ish. All of us now have two kids about the same age as Jonah & Vera. Some of the older kids are in nursery school and sometimes miss playgroup. Jonah hasn't been for almost a year because he had been in full time daycare from May 2011 through January 2012 (because I was sick) and then in nursery school until the rodent episode... and then we moved. So all this to explain, today was playgroup day for us - first time in almost 2 mos that Vera and I had been and first time in almost year for Jonah. We were all very excited... and maybe a bit anxious. Then it turned out, at the last minute, playgroup was on the verge of being cancelled due to host sickness. So, we offered to regroup and have it at our house - spontaneous offer and we hadn't prepared at all - but hey that is what kaleidoscoping chaos is all about. So we did it and had it at our house.

We put Vera down for a nap and then Jonah and I decided to make a Passover cake for the playgroup (best baking experience with toddler-it all comes in the box! even the little pan!). Jonah had a great time making the cake and we talked the whole time about sharing with our buddies who were coming to visit - all of our toys! And making sure we were all set with the rules: no hitting, no biting, no kicking, etc.

And then our buddies arrived! Jonah did well when it was just one of his buddies. Then more buddies arrived and he ws still OK. But then there was a whole crew of us in the playroom - 4 moms, 3 big brothers, 2 little brothers and 2 little sisters... and he started to lose it a bit. There were at least 3 episodes of full on melt downs that required total Time Outs in his room. At some point, we had a session of cake eating. At another point, Jonah begged to go outside and managed to get a bunch of us outside. Lots of biking, throwing & kicking balls, playing with grass, and running around ensued (and a bit of Spiderman and Batman role playing for good measure). Vera had a great time and laughed for most of playgroup. It was awesome to see my mom friends. Although, it is totally interesting how our conversations happen in three sentence blurbs and not one conversation ever really gets finished... We almost always need to plan specific "staff meetings" to really discuss anything of note (these meetings often occur during the evenings in TBD places where there are menus and full bars and we take taxis home). When everyone left, Jonah kept walking around the house saying, "where did all my buddies go? mom, I want my buddies back please???" He does love to play and especially to play with his buddies!

In the end, we had a pretty good day - not without its stressful moments. Jonah needs to work on sharing and working through his aggression (weirdly the Pharaoh punching bag seems to be helping... see picture here), but he is an awesome chef! Vera is still giggling her way into every one's heart. And the two of them, well, they just love each other sooo much!