These Are My Friends

A funny story about Isaac-
We were at the duck park the other day and we went to play on the playground. Isaac walked up to a boy who was probably 7 years old and said "Hi, I'm Isaac. What's your name." "Colton" the kid said. "Can I play with you?" Isaac asked. "No, I am playing with my other friends."
"I can play too." Isaac said and followed him to a platform that about 4 kids were standing on. "No, these are my friends." the kid said. "Well these are my friends!" Isaac proclaimed as he turned around to see no one was standing behind him. "I'm going to go find my friends!" he said and stomped off. I was so amused by his boldness and lack of insecurity- two of his best qualities. He couldn't find anyone and said, "Mom, he's got all the friends!" Then he got back up by them and said "I can play here too!" The kid called him a stinky face and he shouts "Mooooommmmyyyy!!" so loud you would think he was injured. I had to turn away from him I was giggling so hard. He came running to tell me what happened even though I had heard it all. I said "you don't have to put up with that." And he said "yeah!" and ran over to tell the kid to be nice. The kid just ignored him and I again encouraged him to find some other kids to play with. He eventually did but he kept a stern eye on the "mean boy in the red shirt" for the rest of our time! Oh...Isaac! I pray you will always have the inner strength to stand up for yourself and others! I told Billy that the sassy tone and attitude we try so hard to curb in him might just pay off as a positive thing with the inevitable playground bully.

On the topic of playgrounds, we went to one near our apartment yesterday when it was like 78 degrees out. There were about 6-8 other families there and they represented about 5 different races, including a boy with his two daddies. It was interesting to me that Isaac is still largely unaware of physical differences, because he never said a word about the diverse children he was playing with. He had an imaginative game going with one boy for over an hour! I think we will try to make this our regular park.