Girls' Night

Thomas has made a sweet little friendship in kindergarten this year. Most days we walk to and from school with the girl that lives just down the street. They are not in the same class so whoever gets out of school first waits for the other and they walk side by side.

Yesterday, as we walked home together, they tried to arrange a play date with each other. "Ask your mom if I can come over and play." "Ask your mom if I can come over and play at your house." We both had plans for the afternoon so we arranged to have them play together today after lunch.

Thomas quickly ate his lunch and then watched out the window for her to walk over to our house. He was so anxious. She finally arrived and the kids were all waiting at the door before she even had a chance to knock. Thomas immediately invited her upstairs to his bedroom to play Legos. She joined him.

However, she is also friends with Lilly. Lilly and the doll house were just too enticing and before long she had ditched Thomas to join Lilly in the girls' bedroom. Thomas tried to beg her to come back. She suggested that he play with the girls. He refused. He insisted that she come play with him in the boy room. She declined. He then appealed to me for help. Not wanting to force her to play Legos, I tried to explain that girls like to play with girl toys and that she and Lilly were friends too. He burst into tears and cuddled next to me on the couch sobbing.

He cried that she didn't like him any more. He cried that she had chosen his sister over him. He cried that she wanted to play with "stupid" girl toys. Through his sobs, he insisted that she no longer liked him and that he just felt so bad.

I tired to comfort him the best I could and assure him that she still liked him (I had seen her little smile when her mother teased her about waiting for her "boyfriend"). I really never thought I would be consoling him over girl trouble in kindergarten.

Then, I explained that even when he is grown up and married and his wife is his very best friend, she will still want to play with girl toys and hang out with girls. Utah Dad, who was by now involved in the conversation, agreed. Utah Dad knows and he understands, as he puts the kids to bed by himself tonight so that I can run off and join my girl friends for an evening out together. Wait. Make that two Girls' Nights--I get to meet my friends from college for dinner tomorrow night. Who knew that Thomas gets to learn this lesson at a very young age?

Oh, and do you want to know something absolutely disgusting. I cleaned out the garbage can in my bathroom today (that alone is disgusting) but today I noticed that there were special "drawings" on the inside of the garbage can. On closer inspection, I realized that Molly had used my lipstick to create the art. She must have done it the other day when I discovered my lipstick on the floor. The lipstick that I have been using for the past few days. Ewwwww!