The Play Date

A few weeks ago I shared a note we received from the mom of Teddy's friend, Max. This past weekend we had a play date at our house with Max and his parents.

First, let me say that I'm so glad they were willing to come to our house. In Wisconsin winter, there aren't a lot of options for play dates, and our house is certainly the easiest because it's the most Teddy proof place that exists. It's OK if he breaks things here or puts things in his mouth and the entire house is either OK for him to explore or locked to prevent his exploration. Whenever we go anywhere else, we're constantly redirecting Teddy to keep him from places where he shouldn't be or from breaking things that other people probably don't want broken.

But that's not the point of this post. This post is to share how fantastic the play date was for Max, Teddy and both sets of parents. I'm the only one who has met both Teddy and Max, so everyone else was meeting for the first time. AJ went into his super show-off mode, which involves being extremely loud and bouncing off the walls to show off everything. So, after a bit, Dave gave AJ a tablet to allow AJ to be distracted and allow Teddy to focus on playing with Max instead of wondering what on earth AJ was doing.

There were several times that Max happily took Teddy's hand to lead him somewhere, saying, "I can help him because I'm his buddy." Max offered Teddy different toys, giving him things he built out of magnets for Teddy to take apart. There was only once that we needed to restrain Teddy from destroying Max's creation because he was focused on building and didn't want it taken apart. But once Max had his creation built, he said, "Here, Teddy. I built this for you."

They rode bike together and scooter together ... as in on the same bike and the same scooter at the same time. (Hey, I didn't say the play date was safe!) That was entertaining to watch. No matter what Max would do, Teddy watched with a giant smile on his face. Max would put his face inches away from Teddy's face, and Teddy would burst into non-stop giggles, which made Max laugh. The two of them spent probably at least a solid quarter of the play date laughing with each other, which was so much fun. Hiding behind a door and popping out from behind it was something they discovered they both love, as is the magic of light switches.

At one point, Max's dad said something about how incredible it was to watch Max interact so comfortably with another kid because Max struggles to relate to peers his own age. But he's incredibly thoughtful, considerate and fun with Teddy. He doesn't need Teddy to speak words for him to understand because he watches Teddy's gestures, facial expressions and body movements to figure out what Teddy wants or is thinking. A smile and laughter are universal languages.

Max and Teddy both have the same approach to snack. Eat fast and eat a lot. But that's a good thing because when people eat their food more slowly than Teddy, he automatically wants what they still have. Both boys downed their snacks in record time, although Max still had banana left when Teddy was done. Max shared a bite with Teddy, which Teddy devoured. Then Max gave Teddy the rest of his banana simply because he understood that Teddy wanted it. Such a thoughtful friend!

We all agreed that we need to have more play dates. Those couple hours were the highlight of my weekend and honestly my month. It's such a gift to find an incredible friend, and these two boys have that gift indeed!