Friends

This weekend was a short one for our family. We had a great day yesterday exploring the Rivers and Spires festival downtown. This festival brings lots of vendors and entertainment to our town. Pat and I were totally enjoying ourselves, but Ryan seemed to be upset about something. We weren't sure what was bothering him exactly until he asked in a very sad voice, "play?". We realized that he was getting upset because on the car ride there he was certain we were going to go play, and he didn't quite consider walking around the festival to be playing. Thankfully we had learned that there were some bouncy houses and made our way over to them. Ryan was back to his normal happy and crazy self in no time.

Later in the day we attended a birthday party for Pat's friend. Lucky for Ryan there were lots of other kids there and ANOTHER bouncy house. Ryan had a great time.

However, with Ryan playing with all the other kids, I had a moment of guilt wash over me. Ryan doesn't really have any friends, and this is mostly my fault. It can be hard making friends and even harder when you move frequently. I've made a few great friends over the years, but the closest one is about 150 miles away. I've tried to make friends here but haven't had much luck. Not having many other kids to play with is one of the reasons I've signed Ryan up for preschool twice a week in the fall. I think socializing with the kids will be fun for him, but he also NEEDS to see other people when Pat is deployed. I guess I cannot dwell on the fact that me having no friends = him having no friends because I am trying my best, and hopefully he'll get some friends of his own as he grows a bit older. He is still young after all. And pretty soon he'll have a great playmate in Sean. They are already so fond of each other; I cannot wait to see where the next half year brings them.

As I said it was a short weekend, this is because Pat is currently attending an out of state funeral for a guy that he worked with. While I will miss Pat tonight, I think he needs to be there and hope that the family can find some peace.