"Hers My Friend"

I started off today at our art class writing a blog in my head. The true challenge of parenthood to me is NOT parenting our (perfect) child, or even putting up with other people's (darling) children, but interacting and tolerating the other parents/adults out there. Our Chinese class is full of wonderful families. The art class annoys me to no end. But that is the one Lucy actually likes!! Ha. There were 2 particularly annoying parents (separate families) there today, and the teacher as always annoys me. Every week we have story time, and at least 50% of the time she mis-reads the story. Today she read "Four Foursome Tigers" instead of "fearsome". I mean, the kids can't tell, but it drives me nuts!! It's like teachers misspelling (or anyone for that matter). Fine, it's art class, but what happened to excellence? I have told Tim that I am going to have a very short tolerance for when she goes to school and I have to correct the teacher all the time. I'm pulling her out after 3 strikes!!! (typos count as a "ball" so they can have four simple errors to equal one strike if it's a mistake I might make!!) On that thread, I found a certificate of excellence I received from my 6th grade teacher, for my efforts and success in spelling. And he spelled "their" wrong...."not everyone chooses to do there best". OH MY GOSH!!! I was reading it to Tim, and we died laughing (after I spent probably 10 minutes outraging about how no one caught this....as it was signed by the principal too! 3 separate certificate awards!!). Tim said it calls into question the validity of the award and perhaps I am not as good a speller as I think, since he was grading my papers!! haha.

Ok, so I WAS going to write a whole blog about that. (Isn't that what I just did? Oh no, I could have continued a much longer rant about what and how they did to annoy me!!)

INSTEAD, I have a beautiful story to write about. Lucy's first park friend. When we first got there a middle school boy had set off a firecracker in a garbage can. We were scared by it, but another little girl was crying and hiding from the noise. She finally approached us and asked us if we heard the loud noise. I told her yes, and we were scared too. After a few minutes, Lucy was building a nest out of woodsy materials, and "Tyler Dunn" came up and introduced herself and starting helping Lucy build a nest. (She said she was 4). They were kindred spirits. Both scared of loud noises, gentle with the other's feelings and ideas, and I was nearly in tears as I delighted in watching Lucy take another child's opinion and work it in to her own plan. Tyler was a little bossy since she was older..."Don't mess up the nest"...Lucy: "okay, I won't". I was worried Lucy would get her feelings hurt, but Lucy took it all with good sportsmanship. Lucy proudly introduced me to her friend. "Hers my friend!" She was beaming the whole time, checking in with me with her eyes a few times, but truly engaging and interacting, not just watching Tyler play as she usually does with other kids. She would offer grass, bark, twigs, "here's a big rock" and tell Tyler "that's a great idea" whenever she did something different to the nest. So encouraging. Lucy said "thank you" and "here you go" and so many sweet interactive phrases. She followed Tyler's leadership, but also came up with her own suggestions too. Because it was kind of on a hill, Lucy slipped and took a dive (just falling to her hands and knees). She looked a little stung, but she looked up at me, and said "I'm alright" (with a bit of a grimace.) A minute later as Tyler jumped off a rock, Lucy called out "Be careful my friend". OMG, I nearly burst into tears. And then Tyler's mom gave her the 5 minute warning of time to go. When her mom finally came to make good on her promise, I almost begged if they could stay longer right along with Tyler!!! As Tyler left, (who names a girl Tyler anyway?) she told Lucy to make that nest a good one. "Okay, I will". A few minutes later, Lucy called out to the birds "Oh Birdies.....we've got a great nest for you".

Lucy has 3 really great girlfriends around her age, but this was the first time I've seen her have interactive play with a stranger. This adventure of parenting is so fun!!