a new day

i took the kids to the park yesterday afternoon as it was a beautiful, sunny day.  a bit brisk since it was only 50 degrees, but around here, that’s considered warm!

there was only one other little girl and her mom there.  apparently, this little girl decided she wanted a playmate and mikey was the only one available.  little did she know that mikey usually keeps a wide berth between himself and every other kid under the age of 12.  he seems to think kids older than 12 are mini-adults and are therefore okay in his book.  smaller kids however, are prone to yanking toys out of his hands or pushing past him to get to something first.  it’s a jungle out there!  so mikey’s way of coping has been to avoid any and all conflict by playing with whatever thing no one else is interested in and then instantly backing away from it should anyone else approach. 

so this little girl kept following mikey as he kept walking away.  i decided to give him a little cover as i wasn’t quite sure what the girl was up to.  i stood near him and smiled at the girl.  mikey gave a bit of a yelp as he hid by my legs.  the girl still stood near us (all the while her mom ignored all of us!) so i told mikey that he didn’t have to be afraid and could say hi to her.  mikey peered around my legs and said warily, “hi.”  at that, the girl announced, “i’m big.  i’m 4.”  i answered for mikey, “he’s only 2.”  he must have decided she was more friend than foe at that point because she went over to climb up a play structure and to my surprise, mikey actually followed her!  they chatted as they put gravel down the tubes and pointed out different cars and busses driving by.  she did ask me at one point, “does he know how to talk?”  i answered that he was still learning.  she seemed satisfied with my answer.

they stayed up there and i actually got to sit down at a bench with allie.  usually i have to follow him around helping him up, helping him down (not very easy with allie strapped to me in the bjorn!), and so on.  mikey would periodically lean near the girl’s face to tell her all about bob the builder’s birthday.  we saw that episode months ago and he’s been talking about it ever since.  every day.

the little girl decided to come back down and i thought that was the end of it.  to my shock and utter delight, mikey calls down to her, “hey kids!  come ‘ere!”  not sure why he called her “kids” though.  she turned around and went back up to him!  later, they both came down and had great fun running around in circles, going through the tunnels, and down the slides.

eventually, the little girl’s mom told her they had to go.  the girl came over to say bye to mikey.  he said “bye” and waved.  the mom said mikey was cute.  i commented how nice her daughter was to play with him.  mikey climbed up to the top of the play structure as they walked to their car.  he called out, “bye!” as he watched them drive off.

mikey’s first playground friend.

mikey, filled with newfound boldness, spotted another little girl who had just arrived.  he marched up to her, said, “hi!” then ran over to the slide and again called out, “hey kids!  come ‘ere!”  she came over and the fun continued with a new playmate.

i hated to end his fun, but naptime (aka mommy’s golden time) was upon us so we had to go.  mikey left having no idea of how happy and proud i was of him.  my little boy is growing up!