Play Date Fail

First, an update. It turns out the missing ingredient in Whitney's diet was ... sugar. I know, right? We also cut out freeze dried fruits and most of the rice cracker/puff stuff - but not all. And I am not convinced the rice stuff contributed to her problem. Juice though, seems to be the ticket. As soon as we added a little bit of juice and the occasional karo syrup in her milk then viola! Whitney was all systems go again. So nice to have a happy kid - now we just need to deal with the teething and the tantrums and and and.... :)

Ok, play dates. Well, hold on, let me back up. Very very few of my friends have children. In fact, most of my friends are single and childless. My work colleagues - and fellow stage managers especially - seem to put off having children until much later in life. A lot of moms in my field don't become moms until late thirties, early forties. I personally didn't want to wait that long. The moms I do know are either far away or their children are not remotely close to Whitney's age. All of this makes me pretty isolated.

I want Whitney to have friends and interact with kids her own age. I also want to have a friend or two that I can hang out with - and since we haven't started daycare or anything like that yet - I joined a Mom group in my area. So far this has been pretty ok. I have met some really nice people and found out about local stuff I never would have known about otherwise. But, I can't say that I have made any friends. I was close a couple times, but each time now they have moved away. NYC can be tough on a young family.

I decided I needed to be more proactive and host events at my house. Since it is winter and we can't go to the playground - at least not for long. Well, today was the first such play date. I had 5 RSVPs - which was great! Especially since the announcement didn't go out until 2 days ago. One problem - no one showed up. A couple people didn't even bother to cancel. Whitney and I were left with the house all set up and no kids to play with. That - sucked. Not that Whitney cared, but me - well, I guess some memories from childhood are making this worse than it is.

I am not going to let this get me down though. The notice was a little short for this one and stuff comes up when you have a wee one. So, Whit and I are going to keep trying. After all, I need to get my money's worth out of the 6 x 6 play mat we have had sitting in the closet. Who knows, maybe next time will be better.