A Playdate

Today Sophie was invited for a playdate with a little girl named Julie who we have known for a while now.  Sophie and Julie are the same age and they have been in the same music program and summer camp together.  Being invited for a playdate seems like such a standard thing for an almost 6 year old girl, it is a regular thing for Lucas to go to playdates and hang out with friends.  But it isn't something that happens very often for Sophie so it felt really special for her to get that too.  I don't need to feel like Sophie is typical, but it was a great feeling to know that Sophie is meeting friends that she can socialize and play with.   Sophie is a social butterfly and loves being with other kids.

Both girls are non-verbal and non-mobile, so you might be thinking what exactly could they do together?  Well they showed us pretty quickly.  Sophie was very interested in all of Julie's toys and Julie was happy to give little demonstrations on how to work everything.  It was very cute. 

We laid the girls down on the rug to play and before you knew it Sophie had rolled herself closer to Julie to watch what she was doing.  They both gave smiles for the bouncing tigger and the fusion ball and Sophie tried her best to get close to the piano that Julie was playing on.  They were figuring out everything going on around them and it was fun watching them interact in their own ways.

We asked them if they wanted to do some crafting and we got them all set up.  Cheri (Julie's mom) is a crafty mom too and she had some great stuff for the girls to check out.  They did some finger painting with awesome girly colours and they chose little mirrors to add to their masterpieces.  The mirrors were a brilliant addition, Sophie LOVES mirrors so this will be a fun piece to have up on the wall that she can checkout all the time.

The girls loved watching each other paint.  They were reaching for each other and you could tell that they were really interested in what the other was doing.  Of course they thought it would be funny to only have one of them smiling at the camera at a time, but what can you do.  ;)

Of course the added benefit of all this is that I get to be friends with another mom that gets it. She knows all the same ups and downs that come with raising and loving a child like Sophie. I have met a number of friends over the last few years by being Sophie's mom and I feel very blessed to have those people in my life.

The girls checked out what each other had painted and showed off their paintings.  It was a great sensory experience for Sophie, she always loves getting messy.  After a fun afternoon Sophie was worn out and we just chilled out at home tonight.

I think the girls were setting up another playdate here, or maybe just telling some good secrets.