Social Development

Boo has had a huge breakthrough in his social development.  Mind you, he's never been delayed or anything like that in this area, but this is a case of one of those sudden bursts of growth that come with childhood.
Boo has always been a kind soul, and he's been good about playing by himself and even with others.  He has a soft spot for puzzles and books too.  Now he has discovered playing games and taking turns.

For his birthday, Daniel and Ethan gave him a Memory game.  Gak and I gave him Candyland.  Amma gave him a set of Cars dominoes.  We've had varying success with all of these.  At first, it was quite challenging.  He didn't understand turn taking.  Also, he couldn't focus on the game at hand for more than a few minutes.  Memory has been a favorite though since we first opened it.  (To keep the game short enough for his attention span, we only use about half of the pairs.)  Dominoes were also fun because in both cases, he had to match things, which is a puzzle, and he likes those.  Candyland the first time he and I played it was a bit of a disaster.

But, in the last week or so, something has clicked.  Almost audibly.  On Saturday (or maybe earlier in the week, I can't remember now), Boo wanted to play Memory, and actually was saying who's turn it was (including making Trey take turns, it was so very cute!) and paying attention through the whole game.  On Sunday when we went down to visit Daniel and Ethan at Ben and Jenny's Daniel and Boo played a game of dominoes.  He did very well with the turn taking and watched and saw exactly what he's supposed to do and how to match things.  Previously our domino games were pretty loosey-goosey.
And then came Candyland.  He got it off his shelf earlier in the week, and he and I played a nice game taking turns and he did great with the counting.  He was actually unhappy that he won!  He wanted to tie.  (See, I told you he's a sweet kidd-o!)  I reassured him that it was quite alright to win and that I was proud of him for playing so nicely.  Ever since then, he's been trying to get Gak to play with him every morning.  Yesterday morning Boo and I showed him how it's done.  The boys played again today as well.

So, my boy-o now wants to play with others.  He also wants others to succeed as proven by his desire to tie.  (That's happened several times this week.  I'm glad he's thinking of others, but sometimes, you need to put yourself first too.)  I'm so proud of him.  Sure, he mostly wants to play with the adults in his life, but sooner or later it will include the other children.  It already includes Trey from time to time as his own person.  I'm proud of my little boy, but a little sad, because he's even less my little baby now.  It's amazing to watch this transformation and I wouldn't miss it for the world.

That's about all I wanted to say today, so I'll bid you peace and fun playing.