Yep, I am officially now that kind of mom.  The kind that welcomes my boys’ friends over after school, makes them some cookies and juice and then watches them head out to the backyard to play baseball.

My oldest has mentioned it a few times and then one weekend came home with the announcement that his friend was indeed going to call so he could go over to his house.  Well, we’re talking eight year olds here and they can’t quite grasp the concept that it isn’t exactly up to them when and if they can have friends over.  So, when the weekend passed and his friend didn’t call, it was difficult to explain that things didn’t always work out the way they planned and a lot of other stuff comes into play like what his friend’s parents had planned for the weekend etc.  So, that Monday morning I suggested that maybe he could get his friend’s telephone number and then I could call the mom and we could set something up.

Yep, that night I had a little scrap of blue construction paper with a penciled number on it.  I called the other mother up and we laughed at how cute it was the boys were trying to get together.  We happily set up a date for after school later that week at our house.

I still smile thinking about it and not just because it is so cute, but because I know how lucky my kids are.  I moved around a lot as a child–I think it was seven different elementary schools before we settled long enough for me to stay in the same highschool for the four years.  Don’t get me wrong, I had a great childhood, dad just moved a number of times for work or mom to have a new home to fix up.  The only thing I didn’t have was continuous friends. 

I was trying to figure out which word to use there and ‘continuous’ was the only one that sort of fit.  We always had to leave our friends behind  and a couple letters were usually all that lasted of the relationship, so I didn’t have those friends that you meet on the first day of kindergarten, tell secrets too and buddy around with through at least your school career.

Now my boys do, and it just fills my heart every time I think of it.  I love on the odd days I pick them up from school (versus taking the schoolbus home)  that their friends wave or say hi or joke around with me.   And to now be at the age where they are old enough to ask for best friends to come over and play and goof off in the big backyard is just…well, cool.

So, there I was watching them through my office window (because heaven forbid if I hovered LOL), listening to the laughter and hilarious conversations of boys and friends, hitting balls and all around just having fun…just the way childhood should be. 

And it’s only the beginning because now my younger son has asked for his friend over.

Yep, I’m going to like being this kind of mom.