Mean Girls...the preschool years

Grady got his first invitation to a birthday party that wasn't for people that count as honorary cousins. It's a little boy in his class at Mom's Day Out, and they're going to tumble at Gymboree for an hour and a half next weekend. Good times.

This leads me to another birthday party, one that a girl in Liam's class had before the holidays. A friend, whose daughter is also in Liam's class, told me about the party--a gymnastics theme where leotards would be provided (really?!?)--and we figured since Liam hadn't been invited, it was a girl's only thing. So I totally forgot about it. In the meantime, we saw the birthday girl and her grandpa one day at Chick-fil-A, and she seemed shy and didn't really want anything to do with Liam or A, his friend from class that was invited to the party. Again, didn't really think much of it.

So last night we had A and her family over for dinner. Her mom and I are becoming better friends and the kids just love one another. Over margaritas, I remembered that I had never asked her how the birthday party went. She said it was fun, though there were a bunch of "yummy mummies" (thanks to my friend with British roots for the term) that were discussing where the kids should head to kindergarten. Then she said, "have you ever met (insert boy from Liam's class)'s mom? And she proceeded to tell me about her. Immediately, my mind starts going. That's a boy. A BOY from Liam's class. And he was at the party. I don't want to think this way, but I automatically do...why wasn't Liam invited to the party? Why doesn't birthday girl like my amazingly awesome son?

Of course I can't bring myself to ask if there were other boys there. I don't think that my face registered any shock or upset, so I just rolled along with it. I mean, I'm ridiculous to even give a shit, but I do.

So today I pick Liam up from school and birthday girl is there (acting a little sassy to her mother, in my opinion)...naturally, I ask him about her while walking to the car. So, do you ever play with birthday girl? Is she nice? Who does she play with? Meanwhile, I'm horrified that I'm even asking these questions. What the hell is my problem? Who cares if my 4 year old is part of the "popular" crowd in preschool?

I don't want to care and I've started to wean myself off caring...but evidently there's a little bit of that insecure 7th grade girl in me. I just need to take care that I don't project her on my little boys, who are perfectly imperfect just the way they are. Leotards or not.