Ivan loves the morning. Myka comes to play. He gets to have his favorite meal, breakfast. Then after naptime, he discovers that no one is there to play with him (apart from mom) and he asks (through yells) where the party is. " Are we going somewhere? I know there are people out there, we have to go find them!", he yells. I know this is what he is saying, because the other day, after nap and the Realization, we went to an appointment where there were kids and toys. I thought he'd get excited about the toys, but he barely even glanced at them. Instead, he did his best: "hello, how are you? I'm so glad to meet you" which at this point in his development comes out as "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhyahhhhhhhhhhhh" very loudly and excitedly, almost musically thrown out into the room. He looks at the other children with delight and expectation, of what I'm not sure! Does he expect them to yell back at him? It really doesn't matter what they do, he loves it. (Except if they hit or push him, which some kids do, especially, it seems, if they have older siblings. When they push or hit him, he gets this deep frown and look of "why are you doing that?")
Tonight, we took him to a parade. He was totally bored, and cold (it WAS near freezing). But then we went to the Big Brother's Big Sister's refreshments and party and he totally livened up. Of course he had some chocolate chip cookie and hot chocolate, so the sugar may have had something to do with it, but he was thrilled with all the people around. He walked and smiled and wooed the crowd.
So, the moral of this story is, or maybe rather it's point is that I either need to watch more kids, have more (working on that) or go places and do things outside everyday, no matter how cold it is. Brian made an interesting comment today. He said kids don't care if it's a bit cold, just the parents do. It's like as we get older, we become bigger wooses. I mean do you ever see a bunch of adults outside playing in the yard? But everyday, afterschool, our street becomes grand central kid's station. And Ivan knows it. So it's the kids, the outdoors, Ivan and I, checking out the world, breathing some fresh air and making friends.
2 comments:
I think it's really good that Ivan likes people sp much. That's very important for him, to communicate and socialize with others.
And I guess you are right when you say that just the parents mind the weather. I don't like to go outside when it's close zero. Just if I have to or if I want to, which is seldomly. I think we got too comfortable with being inside and we stopped being excited about the small things.
Our children often push us into situations we might not ever experience otherwise. Sometimes just guessing what they want is an experience in and of itself.
Ivan is going to be the center of a great social circle.
Post a Comment