The girls and I had a play date today. We don’t do many play dates. There are a few friends I feel comfortable doing them with because they are very much a part of our village and love and support us but besides that, I find play dates hard.

Today’s play date was with friends of Alyssa’s from preschool. I found it important to overcome my fears and take both girls on this one. I’m glad I did and we had fun but it definitely came with some close calls that reminded me why I don’t do them often.

I was watching Courtney like a hawk the whole time because this play date was at a playground near a river. Note to self…avoid playgrounds by rivers.

Even with me watching her like a hawk she still managed to run near the river twice. She’s that quick. It’s that easy to lose her. When you have an slipper, it can take a split second.

The other close call was actually with Alyssa and was quite an eye opener. Alyssa has severe food allergies. Today her friend offered her some of her snack. It was Chex cereal which Alyssa does her plain old corn Chex. This looked like plain old corn Chex. Alyssa is amazing about asking before she eats something if it’s safe. Almost too good. So before she grabbed it she looked at me and said, “I can eat this, right?” She thought she could because it looked like the Chex she eats. I almost said yes for the same reason but played it safe and asked her friend what flavor it was. Her friend said honey. I told Alyssa we better not because I can’t look at the box. Alyssa’s sweet friend them asked her mom what was in the Chex. Her mom’s response was, “it’s honey nut Chex.”

It’s that easy to have an accident when it comes to allergies. That split second where I almost decided to say that’s the corn Chex we eat so sure eat it could have turned into something very serious.

So that is why we don’t do play dates often. Too many possible accidents. But I also know we can’t seclude ourselves. If we did I would have missed out on seeing the beautiful relationship Alyssa had with two friends from her preschool class.

The “almosts” are scary but friends are beautiful.