"I Love You Kayden"

Today Kayden played. With a buddy, at the park. This is big for my little man who left his diaper friends when we moved from AZ to KS. He had friends he had known since he was too small to move on his own, other than a roll across the floor. Friends who he learned to talk with, crawl with, walk with, and get into trouble with. Those little ones have forever carved a spot in my heart, we pray for them daily. We think of them often. We love them big time. They are "his diaper friends". I am so very happy for each little friend he had in Arizona. Together they learned the very early dance of sharing, playing, fighting and loving someone outside of your little family circle. Those mommies were my village when I was first becoming a mommy. They were there for me to cry with. Laugh with. And discover who I was as a mommy. Being a Mommy....This brand new thing to me that was more important than anything else I had ever done in my life.

And now we moved. Although I was very happy with this move b/c it brought me back to my beloved seasons and closer to our families. Leaving our friends was hard. (and I do miss the shopping too:) So Kayden and I have gotten to carve our way through this together. Making new friends and finding a village that works for us in this new, very different place. This has at times been hard for my little guy. He misses his familiar. He misses those littles that he saw at the very least weekly, usually every couple days. But preschool has helped with the transition. He is now talking about his new friends almost everyday and I can tell his heart is healing from the loss of his AZ home and "family". He is telling me less often that he wants to go see his friends in AZ and more often that he wants to play with his school friends. In a way this makes me sad, that they are becoming less of a focal point, but I know it's healthy and what is needed.

So today after preschool we went to the park with Andrew. Andrew is apparently his best buddy at school, along with Cooper, Mia and Taylor. It's interesting watching these friendships develop outside of mommies helping them form. When your in diapers, your mommy chooses who she has fun with and you then "get" to play with those littles. When school starts.....the kiddos pick their friends and then the mommies "get" to hang out during playdates. Funny how that works:) Luckily for me Andrew's mommy couldn't be any sweeter. She and I could talk for hours so I'm glad Kayden and Andrew clicked so well:)

At the park as we were going to see the geese, Andrew looked back at Kayden and said "I love you Kayden." and Kayden in return said "I love you too Andrew". My heart melted. For two reasons, 1) I LOVE that they are so innocent that they can tell another "guy" that they "love" him and 2) My little man is adjusting and will be okay. He is finding local besties that will make his days happier and I am so very happy about that!

(on a side......I look over at the park and he and Andrew are at the drinking fountain drinking out of a plastic bubble container they found on the ground. That put this mama's OCD into OVER DRIVE! I was that crazy mom screaming across the park for them to stop. Hope that doesn't make Andrew's mommy re-think her friendship with me:) Funny the things kiddos will do with another little one at their side encouraging them! Ewwww Ewww Ewww!!)