Bookclub

There have been about a million and one times I have wanted to post about The Moms. And I've never really gotten around to it. I don't know why...I guess we're too busy having fun with them and living in the moment to waste time writing about it. So that's why I'm the annoying mom who brings her camera everywhere and gets in peoples' faces with it. I can at least record our memories that way.

The Moms have been my lifeline since Jacob was four months old. I found the group and jumped right in, never looking back. I could go on and on but I wouldn't know where to stop. We're all different ages, from many different countries and have varied upbringings and backgrounds. But we have this great bond, some bonds stronger than others. I really love these women and their kids and it's so fun to have such a constant group to share the days of our children's young lives with.

Unlike college, I am actually aware that these are the best days of my life. This is the time that I will look back on as the good old days. Some of the kids are starting to go off to Kindergarten in a week and it is so sad. Yesterday was Bookclub. We've been meeting once a month for almost four years. This is my favorite activity of the month. Amy hosted as sort of a last hurrah of the summer because she's got to go back to work as a teacher when school starts. Pretty much everyone showed up, except for MK (sorry, I have lots of pictures).

So here's what it's like: I pulled in on the later side, as I often do. Beckie and Julie immediately headed to my car with 'gifts'. Beckie had the end of a cabbage for me to give to the bunnies, Julie had a bag of muffins to greet the new baby with (as this was the first time she got to meet her) and some old baby food jars she'd saved for me so I can start making and storing Beanie's food. Out of my car I pulled three bags of clothes, one for Minerva and two for MaryMargaret. Minerva in turn, gave me back a bag of clothes that are too small for her little guy. I grabbed Marianne's copy of this month's book to return to her, with some of those Pampers codes affixed to the front because she saves them up to trade in for toys. Jeanne then gave me a jar she'd saved for Beanie's baby food. Before I left Amy had sent me off with another little bag of baby jars. And then I met MaryMargaret at a gas station on the way home to give her the other bags, and she tossed a big old bag of big boy clothes from someone else onto the front seat of my car.

All in all there were 11 moms there and I don't-know-how-many kids. We talked about the book for maybe five minutes, had lunch and stayed for over four hours. One of us is heading off to China for three weeks, four of us have kids starting kindergarten, four others have babies who were born in the last year. At any given time you could look around and see each mother tending to someone else's child, most of us responding to them as if they were our own, jumping up to catch them before falling without even being asked. Fixing them a plate of food, rocking them to sleep, soothing a fussy toddler, pushing them on a swing.

Whoever said it takes a village was right!