Some BIG news . . .

Ok, this may not be the hugest thing to some of you, but for me it is colossal.

At a regular playgroup I attended with the boys yesterday morning, my friend Karla was talking about how Ryan (another friend's son) was going over to spend the afternoon at her house to play with her son Liam (Pete's good friend). Liam is 4 and is in Jr. Kindergarten in the mornings, so he wasn't at playgroup. Pete piped up and said, "I'd like to go play at Liam's house too mommy".

I almost "pooped" my pants and fell over. I explained, "well, Mommy wouldn't be there sweetie". And he said he knew that and was okay with it.

WOW.

So we kept talking about it, drove home, picked up some bagels and cookies and went and ate our lunch. After lunch, I called Karla and said Pete still wanted to come over (they live very close). I talked to Pete and he said yes, indeed, he wanted to go, yes, he would be a good boy, and yes, he would listen to Karla.

This child has been nowhere without me EVER except to his grandmother's house. Remember Duffer Doo? YOWZA! We got kicked out of preschool!!!!!

So I re-bundled David and Peter up for the sub zero temps that recently hit Ottawa and packed them in the van, drove over, and dropped Pete off. He took in the cookies we bought for a treat for the boys and looked like felt really special giving them to them. I said "if you have to pee who do you tell?". He said "Karla, mommy!" (like I was an idiot or something). I got a lump in my throat at my big boy being all grown up (FINALLY!). He ran downstairs to play with the boys in the basement and I left.

I went home and put David down for his nap. I called Karla after about 90 minutes. She said he'd done fine, only cried at one point for about 5 minutes. He went and laid down on Liam's bed for a bit and then pulled himself together again. I had butterflies in my stomach *all* afternoon. An online friend of mine suggested I go pick up Peter BEFORE he got upset and needed Karla to call me. That way he would have a positive feeling about the afternoon and not remember it as him being upset and crying at the end of it. So by the time I headed over it was almost 2 hours that he'd been there. When I arrived the three boys were all going out in the backyard to play in the snow. Pete begged for me to let him stay and play, so I did. Then they came in for hot chocolate and we went home around 4:00.

I asked if he would like to do that again and he said absolutely mommy. Words can't even do justice to describing the happiness I am feeling over this. I was elated. I thought this day might come, but at the same time, I didn't! I'm thrilled that he did this on his own terms, and hope he will be ready for more outings like this without his mommy.

Poor daddy is away in Texas this week for business so missed the big event. But I know he'll be giving out some pretty big congratulatory hugs upon his return.

Signed,

One proud and happy mommy

p.s. can I also throw in that Pete told Karla when he had to pee and went to the potty there and everything????? :-)