the fourth circle of......

We attended our first kid's party this weekend. As we are driving over, we are running through possible scenarios - will our kid behave, will we know any of these people, and most importantly...will there be beer? Let's just say our kid behaved famously. We've come to the realization that we are just not that comfortable with groups of people congregating solely on the basis of "we all have children". J and I are much more comfortable in our usual settings - mental health, the homeless, beer as a commonly shared beverage, and yes - we have gotten mostly used to our kid being an ongoing force in our lives, but the social nuances of cross comparison of developmental stages escape us. Navigating child names, (never mind properly pronouncing them), various food allergies, and my kid taking that kid's toy and that needing to be used as a learning experience, well, we aren't quite there yet. Or better said, aren't sure we want to be there at all. I have watched other moms seemingly transcend into the parental world, but for us, bedtime is one of the best hours of the day, sesame street has a lot of social value, and we see absolutely nothing wrong with leaving our kid with her grandparents so we can trek off to Cambodia for a few weeks.