park encounters

Today Jonah surprised me. At the park I marveled his interactions with two other kids. One boy, about six years old, sat on the slide alone, looking sad and bored. Jonah came up to him and began to talk to him. Pretty soon, the two of them were playing together under Jonah's leadership. Jonah was the one who came up with the games: bus driver and passenger, pretend skateboarding, riding and feeding a squirrel-shaped rocking toy... The other boy perked up and had a great time. This was really the first time that I had seen Jonah engage an older child like this.

The second interaction happened later in the day when another boy, also a couple of years older than Jonah was crying on a platform leading to a slide. Jonah bent over the boy and touched his shoulder, concerned. The boy said that a girl kicked him and Jonah looked in the boy's eyes and said compassionately: "Sorry I kicked you." He apologized for something he didn't do, but the intention was to make the other boy feel better. I told him how proud I was of him that he did that in the car on the way home and again before he went to sleep today. What a sweetheart he can be.

All this is new. Up until about two months ago, he was mostly only able to play next to other kids, but he has reached a new developmental stage that is much more social and interactive. I think he is ready for pre-school!