Collin - 5 going on 10

Not that any of you doubted Collin’s social skills, but our outgoing boy has now without a doubt left his introverted mothers in the dust. Yesterday, there was the telling off of the 10-year-old girls in the library and today was the pick-up soccer game.

The Library Dance

So, yesterday we went to a steel drum concert at our library. Collin hadn’t napped and spent most of it on my lap. However, he joined in when the limbo started and hit the dance floor in earnest during . . . I’m sad to say, I’m on my way. Won’t be back for many a day . . . Collin picked out 2 older girls (about 10, I think) who were holding hands and spinning in circles. They were definitely the divas of the library auditorium. He ran up to them and tried to join their circle of two. They shrugged him off and he ran sobbing over to me (remember, no nap). After the concert was over and Collin had recovered we headed up to the children’s room. The minute we walked in he spotted them across the room, “There they are! Those are the girls that wouldn’t dance with me! I’m going to go tell them that they wouldn’t dance with me!” he declared and marched across the room. I don’t think he quite made it to them because he was distracted by the . . . . wonder knitter!!!!!! The wonder knitter is Collin and Cayla’s newest library obsession. It’s definitely too hard for them and takes a lot of work on my part but it keeps them away from the computer at least. Whatever happened to reading books in a library? That is a post for another day. So, the girls were forgotten in the wonder knitting excitement. However, after leaving the library, we spotted them on the sidewalk. Collin ran up to them and they took off running. He chased them and got them to stop. I’m not sure what he said, but it’s probably better that way. I do know that at 5, Flannery and I were most definitely not confronting kids twice our age who ignored us on the dance floor.

Soccer

If Collin had his way he would be out at the playground all day. It’s the one thing about living in an apartment that sucks, since Cayla doesn't want to spend every waking minute outdoors. So Collin and I went out to the playground today while Cayla stayed home with Flan. The only thing worse than staying inside is going to a playground void of kids.

Collin moped at the top of the slide and spotted some guys playing soccer in a nearby field and shouted to me, “Hey! Can I go and play with them?”

“No,” I replied.

“Why?” he asked.

(Conveniently)I don’t remember what I said. Something along the lines of Flannery’s mother quote when she started dating me, “Older people do older things.”

After 5 more minutes of moping, I told him to go ahead and play with them. He marched over to these 4 men playing soccer and speaking Portuguese and a few minutes later, he was playing with them. The boy had an hour and a half of pure soccer heaven.