Today was a lovely day. We drug out the bikes and ventured into the cul de sac for some faux springtime fun. When we got out there, the girl across the cul de sac came out too. She is older - almost 13 and very nice. Allison sees her out there hanging out with friends and wants to go play with them - she doesn’t understand why 12 year old girls may not want a 6 year old joining them…I’m sure she will understand when she is 12 and her sisters are 10 and 7 Anyway…today this girl was alone and was delighted to play with Allison. She’s a sweet girl…so she asked Allison to shoot some hoops with her. Lydia drug me out of the cul de sac where another mom was blowing bubbles with her sons. Lydia was literally dragging me saying, “Bubbles mommy? Bubbles for boys” - and Meredith joined us for a few minutes while we intruded on this mom with her kids..

when we returned to the cul de sac, I learned two things about Allison….

1) That girl (Allison) can play basketball! She can shoot the ball and get it in the net! Over and over again (you would not believe how Daddy’s eyes lit up when he heard the news)

2) That girl (Allison) is socially advanced….or at least on target. She is a caring friend. And assertive and verbal, even though she is shy and fearful, you wouldn’t know it when you met her. This older girl was taking a mentor role and showing Allison how to play, but Allison kept insisting that she play too, that she have as many turns as Allison was taking. AND later when Allison came inside, she told me that she asked the older girl if she minded playing with Allison because Allison was so much younger and I had told her that she may not want a younger kid hanging around. You have to admire that. I had told her that 12 year old girls may not want to play with 6 year old girls, and instead of accepting that as a truth, my shy little girl went out and asked a 12 year old girl directly if she had any problems being friends with a younger kid. That’s my little warrior.

So anyone want to argue that my kids are not “socialized”? (we won’t mention how the basketball game ended for Meredith….that’s another story. But hey, that kid is four and a middle child and if she gets ugly…there are a lot of reasons for that!)