One of the little perks of having an only child is that when they go for a sleepover you get a little bit of child-free time to remember what it’s like. Mike and I did very little all afternoon, went out for dinner, and watched a movie until after midnight. I’m not sure if it was wise of me to decide to read Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time at this point. Luckily, I had a quite a lot of time today as well: the sleepover went well, but as it turned out, they could easily have put Antonia to bed about five hours earlier than they did. When she got home today, she was stumbling around and muttering incoherent half sentences, until she finally crashed and slept for the rest of the afternoon. Naturally, she is now up and showing no signs of tiredness at 23.10. Oh well… She had a good time!

I think sleepovers are an important way for her to get the experience of being with another child 24/24, having to deal with everyone being tired, sharing attention from adults and all those other things only children don’t get to do quite as much. And of course, to learn that other families have different habits and lifestyles from ourselves, if the sleepover is at someone else’s house.