3 Playdates

It has been a while since the boys had 3 play dates in 5 days. It is common to have play dates, but not that common in their routine to do so many in less than a week.

Play date 1

Val and Luke came over for a nice play date last week after a brief stay at the playground. Marcus did really well at sharing his toys and Nicholas tried too, despite a few quick episodes of snatching and shouting 'mine! mine!'. It is interesting to note how different the boys played with Luke, as compared to their regular female play dates. At one point, Marcus wanted to draw Luke a vegetable truck, which he did and sweetly gave it to Luke as present to take home. 

He enjoyed the play date so much that he pestered me to invite Luke over more often for play dates in future, but had to be disappointed when I told him we can't do that unfortunately since they live in London.

Play date 2 

We headed to Alexio's house this morning for the first time. This boy is a classmate of Marcus who likes him so much that he mentioned to his mum how much he wants to invite Marcus over for play. His mum waited in school for us one day, introduced herself and invited us. After a few postponements, we finally made it today. 

The boys were immediately at home when they spotted the big cars and tricycles at the balcony. Before long, the 4 boys were playing really well together with only occasional conflicts that were very quickly resolved amongst themselves. Maybe because Alexios is 5 and his brother is almost 3, they are very good at sharing their toys with their guests which kept them happy enough to leave me in peace to chat with Alexio's mum. The kids stayed for a good 2.5hrs and had to be coaxed to leave the place. 

This photo of the 2 boys makes me smile. 

It is so cute to see how much Marcus enjoyed his minestrone for lunch. That was his first bowl of minestrone. In the past, he used to dislike tomatoes so much that I would never dream of serving him a bowl full of minestrone for lunch. Now he eats his sphagetti with tomato sauce and loves his lasagne which is already a huge victory. So he greatly surprised me today, in a pleasant way, when he finished up every drop of the soup. 

He was so well-behaved at the dining table. Sat like a posh little boy and fed himself every spoonful carefully. He sipped his soup quietly and chewed with his mouth closed while giving me sweet smiles and little winks from time to time across the table. He even said 'thank you auntie for the delicious lunch' which was such music to my ears. Aww.. my little boy! 

Nicholas, on the other hand, obliged with a taste of the macaroni in the minestrone and expectedly spat it out without a chew. He still dislikes the taste of tomato, regardless of the form it appears. Well, I look at Marcus today, and I am not a wee bit discouraged. One day, my Chipsy will also love tomatoes. 

Play date 3

After a well-deserved nap, the boys woke in time to welcome Emma and Ethel. These 2 girls who used to be their regular play dates for a while haven't been over for almost 3 months. We were originally planning to play sand at the nearby playground, but the weather played havoc (yet again!) to our plans so the kids played with toys instead. They spent quite a bit of time working together fixing the Marble Race structure which was just excellent opportunity for encouraging team work and honing their social skills. 

After having tons of fun at the 2 play dates today, little Chipsy was so tired that he slept like a baby soon after his big dinner of brown rice, honey teriyaki salmon and stir-fried cauliflower. Marcus ate heartily too, and even finished up a large cup of yogurt for dessert. Straight after bath and bedtime reading, he gave me a few tight cuddles and told me he had fun today. 

Seeing how much the boys enjoyed these recent play times with their friends, I planned ahead. Play date 4 has been arranged with the lovely Kana. 

Marcus has been talking non-stop about how much he misses Kana and wanting to invite her over to play with him. He even drew her a beautiful truck and kept asking me if Kana would like that truck, if she would find it pretty enough. It made me laugh when he informed me in a really serious tone "Mummy, I draw this specially for Kana because I love her." So of course I have to invite the pretty girl over and a date has been arranged. My little prince shall be pleased.