Being Brave, Having Fun

Yesterday I took the kids to the park to meet up with some other toddlers and explore their creative side. A friend of mine had the idea to do art projects with our kids on Wednesdays in the park and then stick around for awhile afterward to listen and watch the concerts at noon. While we were sitting in the grass, listening to the music, a bunch of little kids went in front of the stage to run, dance, tumble and just be silly to the music. After watching the kids for a bit, Aidan decided that he would join in on the fun. He had a huge grin on his face and ran right up to the other kids, waving at them and running along right behind them. As I was watching him it occurred to me how eager he was to have fun with other kids. Most of them had friends or siblings they were dancing or playing with but he was just putting himself out there, away from anyone he knew, and having fun. I loved watching him but as I watched the other kids pretty much ignore him and do there own thing, I felt bad for him. I am sure he didn't notice or care but I wanted someone to be as excited to play with him as he was chasing after them. I thought about the times in grade school when I was so naive and experienced those first stinging social rejections and about the other day in the park when Mike and I witnessed how mean kids can be to each other. Am I just another parent who thinks "How could anyone not want to be best friends with my child?" How do you/did you handle your child's first social rejection? When do kids even start to pick up on those kinds of things?

On a different note, Mike was watering the lawn yesterday with the sprayer and surprisingly, Lauren was very interested in getting wet. She was following him around the lawn with her hands stretched out in front of her.

Then, she started getting more and more brave and eventually got a little too close!

It didn't seem to bother her though because she kept coming back for more :)