Wanna plan a date?

This is what it looks like when two mommies make playdates for their very lovely, well-loved daughters (read our emails below). It takes a lot of careful planning, some switching around, and lots of love. Oh, what we wouldn't do for our little girls to have a ball with one another! Good thing we, mommies, love each other, too! Gosh, I so love this family....Jane is so super fabulous at making sure we spend ample time together. She is usually the coordinator, wanting our girls to nurture the beautiful friendship they have. I am not so good about the planning like Jane is, but very willing at keeping us connected in such a simple, profound way. Isabela adores Paige, and Paige adores Isabela. I so adore Jane, and she so adores me. The boys? Well, good thing they have football and other "boyish" things that makes them congregate 4 tv screens together! Oh, how fortunate we are around here! Ask me how I know......Check out the pic with her setting up the airbed in the middle of her living room floor. What says, " Have a wonderful night sleep in our home" like this???
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On Jan 12, 2010, at 12:26 PM,

Hey There,

Hope you are all feeling better. Just a quick note. The rodeo parade
is Saturday 2/27 at 10am if you want to mark your calendar. The rodeo
itself is 3/2 - 3/21 so if we want to go together again, we can pick a
date. We went last year on a Friday after school and I thought that
worked well (we met at Paige's school and took the Metro over to Reliant
stadium)

Would you like to get together for a play date sometime soon? We are
free any of the next several weeks for either Friday afternoon or
Saturday anytime. The only conflict I have is I can't do this coming
Friday.

Talk to you soon,

Jane

From: Brenda Falcone, Sent: Sat Jan 16 10:04:19 2010

Hi! Ok, good thing I waited to schedule. Sam's work projects' schedules have been unstable. So, this is what I am thinking:

Playdate next Saturday about 11ish? Finally do Christmas!! :-)

Parade on feb 27, yes!

Rodeo visit with fun train ride from Paige's school that first Friday, before Spring Break, March 5?

I guess I better get on that cowgirl shopping!

From JAne:

Yes, yes and yes. Woo hoo!!

Let Me Introduce You to ...

Jane.

She just sent me the following pics from our picnic outing on Friday. After Jane and Paige furnished our yummy Chick-fil-A lunch, we must have spent three hours at the park climbing and sliding on the playground, swinging on our bottoms and tummies, counting and sorting various breeds of pinecones and last, but not least, singing interactively. What a blast for us all. Jane and I even managed to squeeze in a great deal of "girl talk", which we always look forward to. It's our time to also catch up. One thing, of many, I love about Jane is how she always seems to coordinate our playdates. She always makes it a priority and most of the time leaves our time together having an idea for the next time.

As I looked at the pics tonight, I was amazed by how long I have known Jane. It really does seem like it was yesterday that she went over to Texas Childrens Hospital to take me a lunch, just because, and she had never even met me prior to that! Isabela was about 4 weeks old, critically ill. Sammy asked me on a Monday if it was ok for his coworker/friend to go by and drop off lunch for me on that following Friday. I learned early on that if anyone wanted to take me a lunch, I would not refuse. I needed it. So, I agreed and figured it was a nice gesture, a simple one, and it would not require much effort on my part, since I was so mentally consumed with Isabela's life. However, on that Friday, as I returned from pumping in the hospital's Milk Bank, Isabela's nurse, JoAnna, told me that I had a visitor in the waiting room. I asked her to describe her to me so that I would know who to look for. She told me "Oh, she's beautiful!". Thinking back , before I walked out to find Jane, I nervously remember calling Sammy and telling him "Why would you send someone so beautiful just weeks after I give birth and sleeping/living in the hospital? Have you looked at me lately?". Of course, I didn't mean it, but it was a fun phone call. Anyway, she took me my very first salad from Ruggles and a cookie she decorated with the icing (which is now one of our favorite cafes). It was my first lunch away from Isabela's bedside. It was my first time hearing about "Lucky Jeans" after asking her what she would suggest I buy after spending almost a year in maternity clothes(which is my favorite brand now). But, most importantly, it was our first lunch of all the weekly ones that followed for the duration of Isabela's hospital stay. Jane had only met me that day, but at the end of our conversation, she asked me if it was ok for her to visit me every Friday for as long as we were there (her only day off during the week)....5 months later, she only missed a few, because she was out of town. And on those days she felt ill, she just dropped it off so that she wouldn't share her illness.

Clearly, she has become one of my closest friends. We have a rather intimate friendship. We are alike on many levels and then not so much on some, just like in my other closest friendships. She has taught me the gift of human kindness to strangers. She has one of the most incredible giving hearts, she always seems to look at Isabela in such a special way...always remembering the little things that make her happy like the little barrette of a bug she sent her with Sammy some years ago, the flip-flops she surprised her with a few weeks ago, just because she knew she loved Paige's. All the gifts she has given us, with such a sentimental value.

Paige is already emulating her mother's tenderness and love. Isabela is so fortunate to share a friendship with her.

Jane likes to take care of me....I hope that I will be able to make her feel just the same way whenever she needs me to.

By the way, that nurse was right, it turns out she's extraordinarily Beautiful.

First Day of (unofficial) Summer

So, my first day of Summer was quite fun. I made plans for it weeks in advance. Because I was on over-load at work for 5 weeks, I wanted Isabela to indulge with many little fun things to do on this first day. The day started out with a family trip to Starbucks. Crystal's classes started at 11 :oo am today and Sammy is off on Fridays so they got to join us for breakfast. We feasted on Frappaccinos and bran muffins. Then we went for a run at Memorial Park. Isabela enjoys watching the other passer-bys, the babies in strollers and dogs on leashes. Before we left, there was a good time spent at the playground. Around 11:00 am, Isabela and I moved on to Rice Village to do some shopping until the highly anticipated arrival of one of her BFF's, Paige and one of mine, Ms. Jane. We made a colossal mess when creating Mother's Day cards and little gremlins at The Right Start's art area. Once the girls' attention span had expired we all walked hand in hand to an ice cream parlor. But, before that, we bumped into a cool boutique with a bubble wand. We stopped to blow bubbles and chased them around. There was so much laughter and bouncing. Once we finally got to the ice cream parlor, there was a fun mess to be had on our faces with the rainbow ice cream....check out the faces!

I hope Isabela felt spoiled today, as I was.