The Not Back To School Picnic

Last week was a whirlwind of activities! Monday greeted us with the annual Not Back To School Picnic in Central Park. Last year, P actively avoided any peers and then quickly fell ill with a high fever. This year's journey north was met with excitement, rather than trepidation, and we came home having happily played with friends, fever free...

Never a huge fan of holidays, as a mom, I'm actually starting to dig annual events. They provide such a perfect point of comparison. Last year, I was all worried about P's socialization (his wariness of kids combined with the vast public distrust of homeschooling was a potent combo for me). This year, his mind has exploded and I find my mind therefore much too busy to give a rat's ass what someone else thinks :) and he seems to have similarly found his social stride. Not that he was a Chatty Kathy on Monday, but he was glad to see his friends, to run with them and jabber with them... with me pretty nearby :)

P and a group of kids, inspecting a tree:



Which brings me to the sweet story of the day. We were exploring the mica mine again, this time with a few pals. As P loaded my hands full of treasure, I headed back to our bag to store the stuff. He said he'd stay with his buddies while I walked through the trees and across the open lawn. Once there though, I began to chat with a mom friend. For a minute, really, just a minute. Her son, who had been playing with P, skipped over and I asked him how P was doing. "Fine. He was crying." I loved his response :)

Half chuckling, half worried, I raced across the lawn to P, whom I found racing towards me. His face was dirt smeared as he flung himself onto me with a smile and a cry. We hugged and I asked questions. Apparently, after a minute of not seeing me, he grew worried and started to cry. His friends asked what'up and he told them... he had lost me :) And these sweet kids said, "Its ok. We'll help you find your Mama" as they escorted him back to our same spot on the lawn. The one we had been occupying as a group, all day ;) Thank god their object permanence is still in place :) I have to admit, its kinda adorable watching this strange stage play out.

So we stuck close to each other for the rest of the picnic and had oodles of fun. We've been doing a lot of leaf gathering for projects of late and P's buddy Des (the "Fine, he's crying" cutie) joined us on another nature hunt. Then there was more mica gathering until P's bag was overflowing.

Des, helping P find fab leaves:



We left at 5 o'clock to walk the 5 blocks to the sub stop, joined by another little friend, Lucia, and her Grandmother. An hour later, the two kids happily emerged from the overgrowth to enter the sub station. I kid you not :) Ahhh, well... While we were spending the day celebrating being out in the world and learning, instead of sitting at a stuffy desk, it just seemed silly to rush them home :)