Meeting a Sweetheart at the Beach

The Ages of a Person

Look who is going to be 33 months old this month. Of course, that mean that three months after that, Jimi is going to be three years old. Now that is really difficult to believe, no?

In June, Darren turns 24, the age I was when I married Chris. In July Erik turns 20 and Jeff turns 30. In May Chris and I will be turning 31 and 29 respectively.

I have a sister who turned 58 this month and a brother who turned 52. Last month my other brother turned 49. I can't believe that at my advanced age I have yet to see my first facial wrinkle. Chris suggests that perhaps I might want to get new glass lenses.

Doubtful.

Meeting a Sweetheart at One of the Beach's Slides

Slightly after 1300, after dropping Grandma Chris off at ECEC (after her lunch break) Jimi and I headed to the beach. Jimi saw Project Playground across the river and told me that he wanted to go there, but I remembered Chris saying that at PP, Jimi zips, zigs, and zags, galloping out in the front of any grandparent silly enough to try to keep up with him. So I explained to Jimi that the really "cool" playground equipment is situated geographically on this side of the once mightier Pecos River. With a puzzled look on his face, he bought my story, even though I, myself, am not quite sure what I just told him.

We stopped at the slide that Grandma Chris and I recently taken him to, you know, the one with the three parallel paths, the one that when we were there last Jimi asked me not to get on because he was afraid that I might break it. And why wouldn't he say that, given that we had just been at the rocket slide a few moments before where I attempted to slide down on my back and obtained an unanticipated speed due to the friction of my shirt and the slide, coming down so fast that I bounced off the ground

at the bottom and ended in a crumpled position (after breaking my further fall with my arms) that Grandma Hoff was able to photo-document with three quick snaps, even though she was laughing out-of-control.

When we arrived at the slide, we spotted two small kids, with matching adults, picnicking nearby. The boy, who is younger than the girl, walks by with a red ball. Jimi, trying to break the ice, tells him, that he has a blue ball like that. The boy, ignoring Jimi, keeps on trucking, replying not a wit. I feel sorry for Jimi who, having made the effort, to be sociable has been ignored. In a way, I also feel sorry for the little boy, who appears to be a little selfish, conceited dud, but as yet I am unwilling to jump to any conclusions.

Then the older child (who I later find out is a fourth grader) comes over and Jimi, undaunted by the other child's inability to relate to a younger child who is reaching out (remember, no judgment yet), asks her to play with him and she says "Sure!"

This pretty little girl has the social skills of a much older child. A few evidences of this--

• She teased Jimi by chasing after after him and when she caught him, she hugged him to make sure that he didn't fall down.
• She let him get a "head start" so that he won their slide races.
• She intentionally stopped at the "finish line" so that he could win.
• She made up games that they could play, explained the rules, and made sure that he didn't get hurt.
• When she went to get something to drink at the picnic site, she made sure that Jimi got a new water bottle.

In short, she did what all people with healthy social skills do: she made someone else, in this case Jimi, feel special and treated kindly. I could tell that she was enjoying herself as much as the joy that she was helping to create for Jimi. May Jimi find more friends like this girl along the way, although closer to his age, of course.

As we were leaving the beach in our car, there in the distance, standing by the slide, was Jimi's new friend waving goodbye to us. Goodbye, sweetheart!