Play Group

     Today we went to a new play group.  It's the second play group we belong to.  The first play group was started by our neighbor, Kami, and is mostly made up of women and their kids from her church.  They are Mormon.  At least, I think we belong to that play group.  We get invited to it a lot.  I'm pretty sure you don't have to be Mormon to be in it.  (My propensity for joining clubs outside my cone of familiarity goes way back.  There was the Korean-American Writing Workshop in Manhattan, the Gay-Lesbian Book Club in Pennsylvania, and the Jewish Club in college--way before I met and married my Jewish husband).
     We got invited to our second play group last week, when we bumped into an old acquaintance named Liz in the grocery store.  Liz and I were pregnant at roughly the same time, and met each other through the Y. Late in the fall before Clara was born, when I was heavily pregnant and weepily craving babies (to hold, not eat), Simon and I went to look at the newborns in the nursery of the hospital where we planned to deliver.  The nursery had a window, and the hospital lined the babies up in their little plastic crates just inside the glass.
     Liz and her husband were inside the nursery, getting a lesson in swaddling.  Unbeknownst to me, their baby had just been born a day before.  He was screaming bloody murder, and the nurse was clucking her tongue and cooing at him while she efficiently wrapped baby blankets around his tiny body.
     Liz and her husband finally wheeled the plastic bassinet out into the hall, murmuring, "It's okay, buddy," while the baby continued scream and crane his newborn neck.  The pregnancy hormones must have been working overtime, because the baby's cries left me disproportionately distressed (and also strangely satisfied, the same way pickles can make you wince and smack your lips at the same time).
     And now Miles is about nineteen months, five or six weeks older than Clara.  He's very smart, tow-headed, and has a super-cute, crooked little smile. Clara calls him, "Mice."
     Besides Miles, the play group includes Evelyn, a sweet little dumpling that's only a week older than Clara; the very independent and adventuresome Alma, 18 months; and a delectable little cream puff named Madeleine, who is five months old.
     Today the kids played in a wading pool outside and snacked on graham crackers and cheese that was cut into different shapes.  Clara stole Miles' cup and stepped all over Alma in her haste to play with the potty that had been brought outdoors for emergencies.  She was duly contrite, though.
     The pool water was cold and she wanted to snuggle on my lap for awhile.