Sophie’s dating, and I think it’s serious.

She’s had playdates before, sure. Good playdates, even — sweet little kids with well-meaning mothers. Kids who like Sophie, I know that.

But true friends? Real play? I haven’t been sure. Until Sarah.

Early in kindergarten — almost a year ago now — Ms. X started telling me about Sophie’s relationships. Several names came up, but none as often as Sarah’s. Sarah’s the youngest of several siblings, and towers over Sophie; Ms. X thought she liked playing caregiver. But Ms. X was always quick to point out that Sarah and Sophie really seemed to be striking up a friendship, too.

I guess so. At Sophie’s birthday party, I watched my kid settle into Sarah’s lap for a good hunk of time, and take her around to show her her toys. Sarah’s gift — Foofah, from Yo Gabba Gabba — was Sophie’s favorite.

And my favorite gift came toward the end of the party, when Sarah’s mom asked me if we could trade phone numbers. Sarah would love to have some play dates with Sophie over the summer, she said.

I practically swooned. I put the note with Sarah’s mom’s number up on the side of the fridge and stared at it for days. When I finally got up the nerve to call, I realized it was mid-June — and at the bottom of the note her mom had written, “We’ll be gone mid Juneish.”

So we waited. Every day, Sophie asked, “You call Sarah’s mom?” And every day I told her, “Soon! I promise.” Then it was time to go to the beach.

“When we get back, I promise!” I told Sophie. My phone rang as we were getting on the plane to come home. It was Ms. X calling to say she’d just run into Sarah and her mom. “Sarah’s mom lost your number, but she found it. She’s going to call for a playdate!” Ms. X promised.

I beat her to it. Friday morning I called. She called back almost immediately. We tried unsuccesfully to find a time over the weekend, and Sarah’s mom wound up inviting  Sophie to come over Monday afternoon (today). I had to explain that Sophie had never been to a playdate by herself. Could Sarah come over instead?

It was another sad working-mom-moment. Courtney oversaw the playdate. I texted her this afternoon.

How was playdate???

Good! she’s still here…got here around 230 and they were having so much fun I called to see if she could stay till 5 5:50

That makes my day!

They are pretty cute! And I talked to her mom about wed and we are going to go to pump it up in the morning

(Pump It Up is one of those bouncy places.) Sarah’s mom also agreed that the playdate was a big success. As for Sophie? She’s thrilled. She, Annabelle and Ray just got back from frozen yogurt (it’s quickly become a summer habit) and I couldn’t wait to ask her what she and Sarah did on their playdate.

She couldn’t wait to tell me.

“Me and Sarah sat on the Whoopee Cushion and I farted! And she farted!”

They also played hide and seek, she told me. Sophie hid in the bathtub.

Sounds like a great date to me.