Play Date

I've been more sociable than H in the past and I've usually had a larger amount of friends than her. Honestly though, this has more to do with my interests. The things I like to do are group or team activities and you simply can't do them on your own. When we move to new locations, I will spend an evening hanging out at an indoor soccer arena to see if people are needing an extra player not because I enjoy it, but because I need a freaking team to be on. I'll go to gaming meetups despite my anxiety because I can't play D&D by myself. It's all a means to an end and I eventually end up with more friends.

I've had a sneaking suspicion, though, that H would really trump me with the parenting community. I like to socialize with people who like gaming or soccer. If you don't like either, I'm probably not hanging out with you. H is much better at actually wanting to be around people where the factors are more arbitrary. She is much more likely than me to hang out with people who live close by or with people from work who don't necessarily share any commonalities except proximity.

Now that we have a baby, we have instant membership into a community of parents; a disappointing amount of which have no interest in soccer or gaming. This has made gatherings difficult for me, but not an obstacle for H.

From my perspective, here's what it looks like for H: "You have a baby? I have a baby too! Let's hang out and let the babies hang out together!"

For me it's more like this: "Um... sure we both have babies, but do you like board games? What do you own? Oh... Monopoly and Life... Yeah... I think my kid is sick and might be contagious. Probably best if we reschedule or something."

The result of this is that Cleo has been on a lot of play dates, none of which I have been a part of. I would get funny videos from H with Cleo laughing with other babies, but I had never actually SEEN Cleo interacting with another baby. I was determined to correct this.

Cleo demonstrating the art
of nonviolent resistance

First Step: How? Luckily, I do have a friend named Mike who I had played D&D with who has Tuesdays off AND has a kid almost the same age as Cleo. He's also a more experienced parent than me as he already has a three year old kid and I was hoping to get some pointers. He was open to the idea of trying this out and we were both not-so-secretly thinking we might squeeze in a game at some point.

Second Step: Meet up. I dragged  a fussy, protesting Cleo out to Mike's house. Due to her fussiness, I packed for the worst day ever including: a dozen diapers, portable rocker, tons of toys, about a pint of frozen breast milk, ukulele, juggling balls, and games. I'm pretty sure that when Mike's wife came home later that day, she thought Cleo and I were moving in.

Third Step: Hang out. The morning was pretty chill, with Mike and I taking care of the kids and catching up on stuff. We then went for a walk to the local game store. I would imagine the sight of two guys decked out in baby carriers strolling through the aisles and geeking out about RPG supplements is a novel one. Appearance be damned, though, because it was fun to gawk and gab about the games and RPG stuff we are currently only rarely able to play. Then back to the house.

Fourth Step: Game on. During nap time, we attempted to play Dominion. We ended up getting about 3/4 of a game complete, but honestly, it was still really, really nice to be able to play at all.

Ha! Try again noob!

Fifth Step: Leave the car lights on. What's more awkward than realizing you killed your car battery after you said goodbye to everyone? Toting a screaming kid around while you problem solve! We tried jump starting it, but I killed that battery good, so I had to call AAA.

Sixth Step: Realize when you come home and are asked by your wife how the babies liked each other that you and your friend never actually put the babies together. At least this means we'll get another shot at playing a full game of Dominion!