Cam's First Playdate Of The New Year

Hmm... at Cameron's age, do we even still call them "playdates" it seems a little young. Maybe "Man Meetups" : P Anyway...

Cameron was having a playdate last Wed. with his friends Vicente and Yohannes. His other friend, I'll call him "T", asked if Cameron would have a playdate with him. I hesitantly said "Sure, let me talk to your mom." Now here's a quick background on this kid's mom: Her son and Cameron have been friends and in the same class for both second and third grade (which is this year) I pick up and drop off Cam every day. The kids play on the playground after school all the time. I have never spoken a single word to this woman. She doesn't look me in the eyes, and has never, ever even smiled at me. Wierd, but let me go on...

Back to Wednesday... T talks to her and she comes over and tells me that her son would like to have a playdate with my son. Cool, no problem, a free few hours for me, right? Nope. She invites her son to my house this weekend. Awwwkward... I think, Alright this can work. The kids get really antsy on the weekends and they could use a playdate. Err... Man Meetup. We set the date for today, Sunday from 1-4.  

It didn't start off too well. T arrives and got totally flustered when I told him that he didn't have to take his shoes off in our house. If he wanted to, fine, but he didn't have to. Within 5 minutes of getting here the kid says "I want to play the playstation" Now, if you know our house at all, you know that the kids can't seem to play video games without fighting, so the Wii and Playstation are in Karl's safe more than out by the tv. I think, 'What could it hurt, let them play'. Let's just put it this way: T is an only child, he doesn't get sharing. Oh yea, and he is contantly saying "What the hell?" Once again, I'm just too nice and I let it slide.

It's raining outside by now so Karl goes down and rents the new movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I make popcorn. I tell the kids to please keep the popcorn on the table. T tells me that at his house, his mom lets him eat wherever he wants. He sits on the couch between Cam and Dillon (Who were originally sitting next to each other before they were shoved apart) so that he can be closest tot he popcorn. He got more popcorn on the floor than in his mouth. At least Jack will be happy.

Now Cameron has been preparing for this playdate by getting everything together to catch beetles. Little plastic containers, the best spots, etc.  As we shuffle Jack into our bedroom and lock him up because T is terrified of him (Everytime he saw him, he plugged his ears) the kids go outside. Our backyard is like a playground. However, T doesn't like the huge trampoline in our backyard. T doesn't want to play on the giant playstructure outside. T doesn't like our chickens. And most of all: T is quite distressed that Cameron has left a pile of dog poop in the backyard. I told Cameron to go pick it up and this kid looks me in the eye and says "At my house, that's my mom's job, and our dog poops in the same spot so our backyard isn't as nasty as yours." Thanks kid.

The day didn't get any worse, but it didn't get much better. T didn't want to take turns playing the Wii, he would not step outside for even a minute (I don't really think he would have played outside anyway, he doesn't look like that type of kid), he told Karl to his face "I don't feel like building Legos, I'm not that bored yet". We brought out the Creepy Crawlers machine where you make little plastic bugs and he totally freaked out because he doesn't like bugs. Ugh. They aren't real kid. He didn't want to play with the bearded dragon because he "doesn't like to mess with nature"

4 hours felt like 4 months today. I have never, ever been so happy for 4 o'clock to arrive!! If Cameron would have had fun, it would have been worth it. But he looked totally miserable and told me he didn't want to do that again anytime soon. Bummer...