Caroline’s Very Good Day
Posted By Kathleen David on October 19, 2008
Caroline had to learn one of those real world lessons recently that is not very pleasant to learn. Her best friend moved away. It was hard to explain the whys to her but she understands that her friend’s mommy and daddy got jobs in another state so Katie had to go with them. But she is still sad about it which we told her it was OK to be.
Katie’s parents are trying to sell their house, which is right across the street from us, but so far no luck. They come back once a month to do some house cleaning and yard work to keep up the property. Last month was a bit of a disaster because Ariel and Caroline saw Katie and went over there to say Hi and see if Katie wanted to play but Katie and her family were leaving. Lots of tears and that is when we had to explain what was going on to Caroline.
This month the phone rang rather early Saturday morning. It was Katie’s mommy calling to see if Katie and Caroline could play together. Apparently on the drive here, Katie had been reminding her mother and father that they needed to see if Caroline could play about every 20 minutes. We had nothing really on the docket so we invited Katie over for a play date with Caroline.
They had a blast together. They played with Caroline’s ponies and stuffed animals. There were several stories worth of adventures being told. They drew pictures and giggled a lot about the pictures. They watched the Tinkerbell Movie together both holding Tinkerbell dolls and other fairies. They had a happy meal. They giggled and screeched like little girls do. Eventually Katie had to go off with her parents to visit some other friends of hers that she has not seen in a while but they left with a giggle and a hug and a promise by the parents that if it was possible they would play together again.
Caroline enjoyed her time with her friend and I am grateful that she had it.
That is a tough lesson to learn, especially at that age. Katherine hasn’t had that particular lesson, but has had others — a cat’s death 16 months ago and my mother’s death a year ago both taught her some difficult lessons, and she still occasionally cries and says, “I miss Nanni.”
It sounds like Caroline’s coming through the other side of that particular life lesson very well, which is great. I hope Katherine does as well when she heads off to kindergarten next year and leaves a good friend from preschool behind.
All the best.
TWL
Ah, it just breaks your heart, doesn’t it? That’s one of the tough parts about being a parent; things that you can unhappily shrug off become the tragedies they probably truly are when seen through the eyes of a child.
I’m gald she’s getting through it. BTW, if you ever wonder if the rest of us would rather you not talk about Caroline’s life, please don’t worry. I think it’s great, watching a young lady grow up under the loving support of two great parents. I sure see enough of the alternative.
Yeah, it does break your heart. I know Caroline is too young to use the Interent unsupervised, but have you decided to coordindate instant messenger/webcam playdates?
Thank you for posting this story. It brought back long distant memories of childhood friends.
One more step for Caroline on the journey into life.