Making Friends

Adrianna absolutely LOVES playing with other kids. We often spend time in our front yard in the afternoons where it is nice and shady. We live right next to a large greenbelt, which attracts many neighborhood kids. Adrianna is thrilled when she sees other children and will call out to them when they walk or ride their bikes by our house. She will yell, “Hi!” and sometimes, “Do you want to play with my rocks with me?” or “What’s your name? My name is Adrianna.” Sometimes, the younger children will come talk to her, especially if our cat, Petey, is in the vicinity. But more often than not, the kids are 8 or above, so they just smile, wave, and continue on their way. I always feel so bad for her; she wants to be their friend SO badly, even if they are quite a bit older than she is. Thankfully her little spirit hasn’t been dampened yet.

One time, a couple little girls came by and did play with the rocks with her. Then they ran around the green belt, screaming and shouting the way girls tend to do. Adrianna loved it.

A few weeks ago, we were walking to our mailbox (it is a couple blocks away from our house) when a little girl about Adrianna’s age shouted to Adrianna, “Hi! Do you want to play with me?” It was so great; finally here was another little girl asking Adrianna to play, and the ages were similar. Adrianna excitedly asked my permission, so how could I refuse?

The little girl’s name is Megan and she just turned four. Her parents were outside too, so I got to chat with them while the girls ran around. It is always nice to meet our neighbors. They live about 5 houses down from us. Now whenever we walk to get our mail, Adrianna looks for Megan and asks to go visit her. hehe. Unfortunately we haven’t had another chance meeting, but I am hoping we do too.

Adrianna has some little friends at childcare across the street too. She is only there about 18 hours a week, but I think it is good for her to get that interaction and I know she enjoys it. Sometimes we will even go visit Janette on the days where Adrianna stays home with me. Janette and I (and sometimes some of the other moms) will sit in the shade and chat while the kids enjoy popsicles and drawing on the driveway with chalk. Or, occasionally on days where Janette has a lighter load of children to watch and I am not working, we will take field trips. One such field trip was to a nearby park.

The kids enjoyed an afternoon playing on the playground and a walk around a small lake where we looked for turtles (saw two).

This is Adrianna with two of her friends from childcare, Jordan (4) and Rachel (3). Her other little friend, Lily (3), was gone on this day.