Hey Girlfriend!

I love thursdays, I really do. Not only is it just one day away from friday (Pizza night!), but it's the day I go visit my best girlfriend Jenese, who lives across town. A typical thursday goes something like this: Wake up, get the kiddos fed and dressed, and get Elliott off to school. Then I run around like a maniac trying to get the morning chores done- dishes, laundry, putting away the breakfast aftermath, etc. Then I load Max and Zoe into our Bob Ironman Duallie, turn on my headphones, and forget the kids/husband/dishes/laundry/dinner/groceries/dog-walking, and anything else I'm responsible for, and run behind that stroller like a bulldozer for the next 3-5 miles. Then we go home and I run around like a maniac once again, finding something for Max and I to eat for lunch, showering, packing a diaper bag and snacks for our day's adventure, trying to remember important little details like sunhats and bus money. Then we're off to the bus stop, Zoe in the sling, Max either sitting in our handy little Maclaren Volo, or else pushing it himself, with me begging him ton "Quit stopping to pick dandelions and run or we'll miss the bus!". We (usually) get to the corner just in time to jump on the D bus, which is about a 20 minute ride down Grand Ave., New Haven's very own Spanish Harlem. Once we get downtown, we hop on the B bus for a 5 minute ride into Westville, which as far away from where I live as you can get and still be in New Haven. But it also happens tom be where Elliott's nursery school is, and where Jenese lives too. I get off at her house, and together we walk to Elliott's school, where we let the kids play on the playground until they're coated with a thick layer of dirt-sand, and ready to fall down from exhaustion. It's just so nice... Our 2 oldest are about 6 months apart, and happen to share the name Elliot(t). Our toddlers are 4 months a apart, her's is a blonde little girl, but I think they actually have more in common than the Elliot(t)s. And then Jenese and I get to play. Yes, grown-ups need playdates too! Sometimes we chatter like a couple of 6th grade girls, sometimes we sit there and goo at baby Zoe together and laugh at her multiple chins and the chub rings on her legs, sometimes we just sit side-by-side in silence and fiddle with our phones. During a visit with Jenese, I can count on two things. 1) No matter what parenting issue I'm dealing with at the moment, be it diaper rash or sleepless toddlers, she will totally get it, and 2) She will make me laugh so hard I almost pee my pants at least once. There's something about that once a week visit that just recharges some internal battery that belongs to the person Suzanne, and not just the Mommy. And it makes me be able to get through, and even love, all the insanity. Thank God for girlfriends.