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Erin

Turns out awesome people (us) wore purple that day.

I met Erin wayyyyy back in first grade. I’m pretty sure that we were fast friends.  One of my first memories of her is gifting me Melvin Berger’s “Germs Make Me Sick.” At the time I was happy as a clam to have somebody give me a book, but now I’m wondering if she just thought that I was germy. I probably was germy…all kids are germy. (I can say this because: 1. I have a kid. 2. I taught 1st grade and got to see it first hand.)

Anyhow, Erin is in my circle of girlfriends from childhood that I can call upon at anytime and they’ll help me out or be able to remember the smell of the cafeteria, balance boards and the name of the recess teacher that we were all afraid of. She’s that kind of friend….lifelong, literally.

Except for the few years she moved away to Colorado, got married and had two babies, we’ve stayed in pretty close contact. In high school we filled countless notebooks writing letters back and forth, spilling our guts out, making collages and wondering what our futures held. While she was in Colorado we still wrote tons of letters, but the level of frequency wore off with work, babies, husbands and life taking precedent.

But now she’s back with her two kids and husband, Karl, and has set up house in A-Town. I can’t say how excited I am about this, but a funny thing has happened. I’ve found myself not having as much time as I’d like to connect with her. We’ve both got so much going on and sometimes between three kids (her two + Mags) our phone conversations fall short and our play dates are never long enough.

They came and had dinner at our house a few weeks ago and we get to go see them this coming weekend, but I already know that it won’t be enough. But you know what? It’s okay. I mean, I did meet her all the way back in 1st grade, so we’ve got all the time in the world to talk shop. It’s not like she’s a new friend or anything.

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Maggie, Mara & Thomas Enjoy Camp Janet

I feel so lucky that some of my very best childhood friends also have children that are about the same age as Maggie. When we’re all in town at the same time (aside from Erin who now lives there!!) we try to make a point of it to get together with the kids. Most recently Erin and Lara came out to my parent’s house with Thomas and Maggie and we ended up going to see the cows next door and eating large amounts of popcorn.

Mara is old enough that she understands what it means to go on a walk, but when it comes to Thomas and Maggie, their still a little hopeless when it comes to directions or walking distances without getting distracted.

By the time we made it to the cows, and picked up some pussy willows on the way, it felt like we’d reminded both of them that we were going to see the cows many, many times. The cows weren’t really sure what to do about a bunch of kids staring at them, so they just stared back. Sydney, on the other hand, decided that the best thing to do was to charge at the fence, which made me nervous because there was one cow that looked like it wanted to eat Syd for lunch.

My parents have a collection of toys that stay at their house and it is always fun to see what other kids, besides Maggie, glom onto. Thomas was all over the fruit cutting station, the hammer,  a truck, and also my dad. He kept bringing my dad different things and made sure that my dad noticed it. It was all sorts of cute.

While the kids played with play-dough my mom started to pop some popcorn and by the time the first kernel had hit the bowl, nearly everyone was done playing with playdough. As the adults and kids both huddled around  bowls of popcorn, we started talking about all the different groups of people that have enjoyed popcorn at my parent’s kitchen table. It was a long, long list and it seemed fitting that Maggie would be shoving handfuls into her mouth with two of her buddies by her side.

I only wish I could have understood their conversation as they each reached for handfuls. Mara is pretty quiet, so much of the talk was between Thomas and Maggie. It wasn’t long after that both Erin and Lara had to leave, but lucky for Mags and me, we got to stay and keep eating and chatting around the popcorn bowl.