Reconnecting

 Olivia and Sam are running from The Wicked Witch out at Farmer's Park

In the car on the way to town Friday I told Sam about Olivia, that we'd be meeting Mommy's friend Rhonda and her little girl Olivia.  I told him that we knew them from a long time ago, that we actually stayed at their house a few times.  He asked me to describe their house, and he was mostly interested in what color each room was.  I told him he was very little when he last saw Olivia, so he wouldn't remember, and when I told him they had a big basement and he and I stayed in our own bedroom there on our way to Hawaii, he insisted he remembered.

"I don't remember a lot," he said, "because I was really little, but I am remembering a little bit."

It's unlikely Sam remembers Rhonda's house.  The last time we saw Rhonda and Olivia, Sam was an only child, and Sam and Olivia had both just recently turned one.  The kids had just started walking and they were still sitting in high chairs, throwing most of their food on the floor.  Rhonda and I were both new to toddler parenthood, and we attempted to have a glass of wine and eat delicious steaks that she'd bought from a local butcher before we fell in to bed exhausted at 8pm.  Rhonda and I met through SMC, and we had braved the crazy world of conception and pregnancy together.  We frequently got together for walks to talk about the shots we were giving ourselves and the hormones cursing through our bodies and the fears we had about pregnancy and motherhood and life in the future. During one particularly memorable afternoon  when we were both newly pregnant we had walked slowly around Lake Calhoun and said "Just think, next year at this time we'll be pushing strollers."

Who knew 5 years would go so very fast!  So grateful we had a chance to reconnect this Friday over a picnic lunch next to the cool, clear running waters of Farmer's Park.