Lonely and Bored

My Monkey needs a monkey to play with. Or at least a toddler. And it is becoming more and more apparent every day.

A typical day for us goes like this:

We get up. Usually too early for my taste (too early being any time before 9:30).
He has his milk, and the unfortunately common dose of antibiotics or Advil that comes with raging ear infections and multiple teething breaking through.
He runs around the living room/kitchen/his bedroom for a while, and I try to eat something, check emails, and call Daddy to say good morning.
He has breakfast (by which I mean I try to feed him breakfast, he laughs in my face and throws it on the floor, I give up, and he goes back to playing).
At some point he gets cranky and takes a morning nap.

So far, not so bad. He has played with the vast majority of his toys with some level of interest, I have probably read him "Violet's House" at least 3 times, and he has successfully climbed on to at least 2 pieces of furniture. He has been pretty entertained. But it won't last. By the time he gets up from his nap, laughs at me when I try to give him lunch, and I put him in his clothes for the day, he's ready for some action. And I don't mean watching "Die Hard." I mean he wants KIDS to PLAY WITH and he wants them NOW.

Unfortunately, we still only have the Fillmore kids as our Columbia kid friends. The two mommy meetup groups I tried to join were populated by wealthy moms on the Northeast side, and it didn't work out so well. We go to the zoo or the park and sometimes he will get a few minutes here and there with a kid who happens to be there, too. But usually the whole day is just us. Just me and my little boy. And man, oh man, does he get sick of that.

I have figured this out because of this trend I have noticed...he will be cranky and crying and throwing things and having a meltdown, and as soon as we pull up to the Fillmores for whatever planned social time we have scheduled, he is happy as a clam. He's smiling, he's frolicking, he's ready to go. And he will stay that way the whole time.

He's not crabby because he's ill tempered, or because he's feeling icky or needs another nap. He's crabby because he craves the stimulation and energy of playing with two other little boys. And can I blame him?

So it's been a struggle, now that I have realized he is lonely and bored all the time. I have a kid who needs social interaction, but I can't afford daycare and it's been hard to make friends. We tried getting pregnant again, unsuccessfully so far, but even another baby won't solve the playmate problem for quite some time. We have been talking about being foster parents and possibly adopting a toddler-aged kid, but that will also take time, and it's a big, complicated step.

I want my Monkey to be happy, and I wish I knew how to get more kids in his daily life. Without having to, like, steal them or something. :)