About two years ago, new neighbors moved in. They had a little girl a few months older than Gatito, and I stopped by to introduce myself. Having learned my lesson about the importance, many times, of playing a little hard-to-get in making new friends, I left my phone number and email instead of taking theirs. I had made the first move by stopping by and I figured if they were interested in making friends, they would call.
They didn’t. Walking by a few months later, I met one of the grandfathers out with the daughter and he mentioned she was expecting twins. Many more months later, I met the nanny strolling the twins. Last New Year’s Eve, we ran into the whole family at a local First Night celebration. We greeted each other and they said this was the first time they’d been out in over a year. Finally, in March, I ran into the family on the street and we discovered that the daughter and Gatito would be in the same nursery school class. We agreed it would be nice to get the kids together so they’d be familiar with each other before then.
I mentioned this before, but they explained that they never called because right after I stopped by, she got pregnant and was terribly ill, then she found out she was pregnant with twins and had TTTS, had in utero surgery, and was on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy, and then she had preemie twins less than two years apart from her daughter. (It wasn’t about me!)
In May, I stopped by once again to let the neighbor know that someone else from the preschool class was arranging playdates and I left her my email address. She emailed! And invited us over for a family playdate! We went, and it was nice. Then they came for dinner at our house and it was chaos, but fun, and we clicked with the husband as well. Then she and I went to preschool orientation together (more on *that* later) and out for a drink after. And now, after all the casual get-togethers, we’re going on our first date: grown-ups only, Saturday night dinner. I am trying not to get my hopes up, but I am excited about the possibilities.
All I can say is that it takes a lot of time and patience to make friends, and you have to sow a lot of seeds, because you never know where and when a friendship is going to grow.
so cool! I hope it turns out well. It is HARD to “couples-date” sometimes! We haven’t had any luck here, but perhaps you’ll be my inspiration =)
You are so right about that. Have fun on your “date” with them
Let us know how it goes!
How fun!
I wish we had some nice neighbors to be friends with. I always thought it would be nice to have a next door neighbor that I could go borrow stuff from or lend stuff to. Maybe someday.
Have a good time!
I love this story, because it really is so true. I was really leery about my next door neighbor, believing she was the last person I could be friends with, but thankfully she kept pursuing me despite my being, well, your neighbor to a T (with the twins and whatnot) and now she’s down at the Cape and I miss her and because of your post will leave her a phone message letting her know that.
Okay that was rambling.