Play Time

We have had play time at the mall twice now. I like it because the play place is enclosed and I can watch the entrance to make sure Eden doesn't try to escape. It is kind of small, but it is toddler friendly and Hope seems to enjoy it too. Hope has blossomed into a little social fairy and flitters to and from each kid, asking their name and if they want to be her friend. Then she "organizes" a game of tag (sometimes dog tag, where they act like dogs while playing) and they all have a great time running around. Tag is a game she only recently learned about with daddy. He would tag her, run across the kitchen, jump over the loveseat into the family room, then hop onto the side table back through the kitchen and down the hall. This was all after asking the kids not to jump on the furniture. ;) Since then it has been her go to game with new friends. I'm very proud of how friendly she has become and how much she has grown socially in just the last few months. When I first started taking her on playdates and such she would just crawl around like a dog and bark in response to the other kids. Needless to say, I was VERY concerned. Now it seems she can make friends with just about any willing child.

I didn't want to take pictures of her little friends, because I figured if a stranger were taking pictures of my kids I would be very uncomfortable. One of the little boys she made friends with was probably closer to Eden's age. Probably around 2 1/2 or so. She kept calling him "little boy". Finally, I suggested she ask his name so she asked his name probably 10 times and he would just laugh and run still playing their game of tag. Hope gave up and decided to just call him, "little fella." I thought that was pretty cute.

Eden is more shy. She stays with me for the first several minutes and observes. After a while she ventures a few steps to get a closer look at someone or something and runs back to me. After she does this a couple times she'll go further, only to get knocked down accidentally by another kid. The corners of her mouth droop dramatically and I can see that she just doesn't understand why someone would be "mean" to her. She cries for a minute or so and I comfort her, but not for too long. I try to encourage her to go back out as soon as possible. Then after a while she sees the opening of the play place and I make several trips out to bring her back in.  Hopefully it won't take long for her to get comfortable around other kids.

Her favorite part of any visit or outing is when we are leaving. Suddenly she is shy no more and yells "Bye!" to everyone waving until they take notice of her.