cool mom campaign update

It's been a while since I've updated you all on the progress of the Cool Mom Campaign. I am happy to report that my stock with Abby went through the roof this week, so the CMC continues to be a raging success. Before I dive into that whole story I'm going to tell you a little about me.

I have never been a play date Mom. Largely because I've never had to be and it's never occurred to me to be one. As I have mentioned before we live in a kid dense neighbourhood, with many of Abby's classmates living on our street. In the warmer months Abby spends most of her time outside and if little Johnny or little Mary is outside and they want to play with Abby that's fine with me. Then it's just a question of who's house are they playing at? So I guess I really am a play date Mom, just not an organized play date Mom.

This winter has been a rough one. Last year we didn't get any real snow until January. There are pictures of Abby outside at Christmas time, the grass in the yard still a beautiful shade of green. This year the snow started dumping on us well before Christmas and hasn't stopped. In fact we have a winter storm watch on right now for the storm they are anticipating us getting tomorrow. That would be three storms in three weeks for those of you keeping track at home. On top of all that the past little while has been insanely cold. Way too cold for the kids to play outside, in my opinion anyway. So we've been in the house, it seems like forever and there appears to be no end in sight, despite what that damned groundhog said. And Abby is not handling very well at all at this point. I have to admit, I didn't really know what to do with her. While sharing my frustration with my friends at work, Lynn suggested setting up a play date for her. That was a real light bulb moment for me. I can't understand why I hadn't thought of that myself. I owe Lynn a million thank yous and, possibly, an Easter Creme Egg.

Abby's very lucky in that her very bestest friend in the whole wide world lives right across the street. And yet we've never had her over to play, likely because I'm shy and socially awkward. We may have discussed that several hundred times before. So last week I got over myself and contacted her Mom and invited Abby's bestest friend over to play. Why oh why hadn't I done this before? Abby had the greatest time and thought I was the best Mom ever, for setting it up. And I had the best entertainment, listening to their little girl conversations as they played dress up. Princesses going to the ball they were. Cinderella's ball, but in a twist rarely seen they told me they left Cinderella at home to do all the work and they were playing the parts of the Wicked StepMother (Abby), Drizella, one of the stepsisters (Abby's friend) and Anastasia the other stepsister (Maya). I thought it was really sweet that they included Maya in their play. Especially since Maya strikes me as the total opposite of a girly girl and yet there she was in her Princess finery with the bigger girls. Although there were some tiara issues. I think it goes the other way Doodle bug.



What can I say, this was a raging success. So much so, that we already have plans to do it again next week, only reversed, with Abby going to their house. I hope this is the beginning of a well worn path the girls will make from our door to theirs. And what did I get out of all of this? Well major Cool Mom points with Abby and that's always good. I'll put those in the Cool Mom bank with the rest so I can pull them out when she's a teenager and has decided I am totally not cool. I can only hope they don't expire before then. Also I had to push myself a little out of my comfort zone, which is a good thing for me. And again from the "why didn't I do this ages ago" file, it turns out the Mom and I have lots in common, including but not limited to a strong love for Vince Vaughn. Although I have to admit, I am not thrilled about the competition in that arena. Of course if push came to shove I still have Tim McGraw, not to mention Owen and/or Luke Wilson to fall back on, so I'm set.