My three-year-old went to a summer camp at her preschool today. She was so excited last night that she could barely go to sleep. It's been a long time since she'd seen her school friends, and she was listing them and asking if this one or that one would be there today. Before she finally dozed off, my husband asked her if she was going to make new friends. This began a near hysteria in her exhausted state (the second hysteria of the evening: the first being crying her eyes out at the US Women's Soccer team losing the world cup to Japan. No joke, she cried for about 20 minutes.) Through her second set of sobs, she explained that she didn't want to make new friends, because she didn't want to lose her old friends. It took a while, but P finally was able to convince her that she could keep her old friends AND make new ones. Once she was satisfied with this, she fell asleep.
Today, when i picked her up from camp, she was beaming (well, not really- she actually cried wen we got in the car because she wanted to stay at school "forever." The tears seem to flow like the nile around here lately!) But, she was beaming about her big accomplishment. "Momma, I made a new friend today!" She told me from the back seat. "Really?" I asked into the rearview mirror. "Yes, I don't know his name, but he had a light green shirt on and was really nice!" She was proud. It was cute.
Later today, when my husband came home from his meetings, the first thing M asked him was, "Daddy, did you make any new friends at your meetings today?" He told her that today was full of old friends, but that there would be new friends to meet tomorrow. She was excited for him.
This all just touched my heart. I forget what it must be like to be a kid, braving the world of friends and new kids and shyness and playgrounds. I probably never really went through that as much when I was a little kid, because i always had my older sister to pave the way for me. I had it easy, just like B will already be going into preschool with a built-in set of friends- the little siblings of all of M's friends. I was proud to see my girl playing with all of her old friends when i picked her up, and happy to hear that she made a new one, too. And tonight, when she went to sleep, there was no hysteria or even tears! That, in and of itself, was enough to make to smile, too!
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