Make Dad proud
It happens just about every time I pick up my two-year-old from daycare. One of his little classmates, a girl named Nicole, shouts out his name and waves her tiny right hand wildly, clearly sad to see my son leave.
She's also the first one to greet my son when he arrives in the morning. She spreads her arms wide and wraps him in a warm hug. It's so sweet to watch. Sometimes I pretend to leave after dropping him off, and then hide behind a wall or door just to watch what happens between them.
They obviously have a connection. I've seen my son share toys with Nicole, an act of generosity that can be rare for a child his age. Heck, at home, I can barely get him to share his toys with me. Occasionally, he'll give up a Hot Wheel that he doesn't really care about, but never his favorites.
But with Nicole, he seems to share just fine. They also spend time talking to each other while their other classmates are busily running around, falling down and/or spitting up. Their conversations are mostly gibberish at this point, but they seem to understand what each other is saying just fine.
My all-time favorite moment, however, occurred two months ago. I had just brought my son to daycare and did my hiding trick when I observed he and Nicole having one of their talks. My boy handed her a little toy car, which, again, to him is worth more than gold. Anyway, they had just begun another unintelligible discussion, with words like "jish" and "dipoteet" and whatever else, when I noticed another of my son's friends, a boy, see my son and excitedly start to run toward him. My boy also noticed. Without breaking his conversation with Nicole, he quickly glanced at the boy closing in and shook his head, mouthing the word "No," as in, "No, don't interrupt us now."
I understood what my son meant. The boy, unfortunately, did not. That's why, at the last second, my son turned his body ever-so-slightly toward the oncoming kid and suddenly straight-armed him, knocking that boy back several steps and eventually onto his butt. Then my son turned back toward Nicole as if nothing happened and kept gibbering with her.
Sure, I felt a little sorry for that kid (he wasn't hurt at all and even giggled before getting back up). But mostly, I felt proud that my boy had established an important priority at such a tender age: Girls.
I'm not saying my boy is in love. I'm just saying he seems to know that it's better for him to be kind and gentle with girls, and at times, a little rough with boys.
I can't wait to see him at work when he turns three.
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