Social Butterfly

This morning I took the girls to the local LLL meeting. There were about four other kids there that close to the Mermaid's age, I'd say between 3-5 years old. Now, the Mermaid very rarely gets to play with other kids. There aren't any other kids in the family, at least that we see regularly. And while we have been to a few play dates, they were back when the Mermaid was much younger and didn't really realize what was going on. So I was a little curious on how she would react to these other children.

Well I had no reason to worry. My daughter is a social butterfly.

The older children played while the mommies sat around in a circle with the babies and talked about, well, breastfeeding of course. And while I was keeping an eye on the Mermaid through the whole meeting, it wasn't until later until I realized what was going on. I had just packed the Guppy up in her carseat and was looking for the Mermaid to put her jacket on when I saw her playing across the room with the other kids. I mean, I really saw her. And all I could do was watch, and feel really proud. The other kids were so great with her, they were all older but they were doing their hardest to include her in their games. And she was so incredibly happy to be included. I don't think I've ever seen her laugh so much before as she ran around with them while playing tag. The oldest, a five year old, gave her a piggy back ride. She was having so much fun that I unpacked the Guppy and decided to stay a while longer, as I didn't want to end her playing.
The kids set out to teach her tag and she picked up on it pretty quickly. When a younger child fell, she ran over and helped him up. I was a little worried when the game started to get a little rough, as the older boys started pushing her a little. But she wanted no part of that! She promptly stood up, shouted "Stop that! No!" and that was that, they moved on. No need to worry about her being bullied around!
Towards the end of the game the five year old got a little excited and ended up pushing her down again. This time his mother saw it and sent him to sit in a corner. The Mermaid wandered over to him, said, "Come on!" and tried to get him to play some more. His words? "I can't, I have to sit here because I pushed you....I'm sorry." awww. When the Mermaid realized that he couldn't leave the corner, she proceeded to bring all the toys in the room over to him and sat next to him to play. What a sweetie!
Everyone ooh'ed and awww'ed over the Guppy, of course. She was so content through the whole meeting. I also met another Momma that cloth diapered, which was really cool. By the end of the meeting I had signed on to the planning board and I am going to be in charge of publishing. What does the publishing person do? I have no clue. But I'm up to doing anything to help. We have our first planning meeting at the end of the month.

The Guppy was cranky all night last night so the two of us didn't sleep well, which led to me sleeping through my hour of exercise. She's been very needy today also, wanting to be held even more than usual. So, I haven't gotten much house work done and dinner isn't even on my mind, but as I sit here right now she is in my arm, smiling and cooing at me.......so I really could care less.

Social Butterfly