Since it was a three-day weekend, we had Alice's friend Grayson over this morning. She has gone to Marbles twice with his family, so we needed to reciprocate. Grayson loves trains too, and is quite a good kid, so having him over wasn't much trouble at all. I was really curious to see how Alice would interact with him. Before he came over, I talked to her about the expectations: that she should share her toys. She had no problem with this, although there were a few minor tussles over who got to hold the Thomas train. Here is the overview of the morning:
Grayson comes over and Alice and Grayson are both really hyper for a few minutes. Then, Alice remembers she should share her toys, so she starts taking every toy out the toy box to share with Grayson. After a few minutes, they play with the trains. Grayson puts a few trains together then inches them along the track as Alice lays down new track as fast as she can. Grayson has a much longer attention span than Alice, at least when it comes to trains, so he stays pretty focused on them all morning. Alice soon wanders off and starts doing her own thing, although she comes back to the trains every once in a while. She is very good at including Grayson in her non-train-related activities such as inviting him to read stories with her and one time asks, "Grayson, do you want to come poop with me?" (He declines.)
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| Alice laying track for Grayson's trains |
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| Examining a lady bug that has wandered into the train yard. |
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| Story time! Alice is in the zone. Simon and Grayson are more interested in each other. |
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They dumped the blocks out. Alice immediately started sorting them by color.
Grayson immediately started stacking them. |
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| Simon had a fun playdate with his reflection. |
Overall, it was a fun morning. I'm relieved, because I can recall even before having kids living in fear and dread of playdates. It turns out it wasn't so bad. However, I'm glad I don't have to arrange this sort of thing all the time.
