A New Friend

Growing up, we had lots of friends down the block and in the summer we would live outside playing with those friends. Summer days meant going out in the morning and coming home with dirty feet and tanned skin, having played with neighbor friends all day. I don't imagine that much freedom anymore for my kids these days, but I do wish for them to have some buddies just down the block that they could play outside with like we had. We do have some girls next door that are younger, and Barbara & Jimmy sometimes will ride bikes and play in the yards with them. We have always had a neighborhood full of little girls it seems! Poor Jimmy never has any boys around, he's always hoping Barbara or I will play ball with him, or he's wanting to call Robbie to see when he can get home from work. :)

Well yesterday afternoon, Jimmy was throwing a ball up to himself and catching it out in the front yard. He was bored because Barbara was working on a project, and I was making dinner and watching Sam & Leo. He could not WAIT for Robbie to get home to play catch with him. There was another boy a couple years older than him across the street doing the same thing, but with a soccer ball. He wasn't our neighbor's child, we didn't recognize him. I saw Jimmy through the door and he was watching the other boy, looking over like he wanted to play with him. Then he went and got a soccer ball and started doing the same thing as the older boy, glancing across the street every so often. :)

I poked my head out and asked Jimmy if he wanted to play with the kid across the street. He said he did but he was too nervous to ask him. Since the boy was now tossing a wiffle ball to himself and trying to hit it with a plastic bat, I told Jimmy to just call over and ask him if he wanted someone to pitch to him (Jimmy's a good pitcher.) That would break the ice and I said that if he said yes I give my permission for you to look carefully and then cross the street to play with him. Jimmy was still nervous, and I watched from the house as he kind of meandered back and forth up by the curb. Part of me wanted to just go take him over or ask the kid myself, but I didn't want to make Jimmy seem like a momma's boy. I didn't really know what the protocal was here- not having been a boy myself :) I didn't think he was going to do it, but about 10 minutes later, I saw him bolt to the backyard to grab his ball and glove, and then he went across the street. (After looking both ways about 3 times- so cute)

The two of them ended up having a blast together, and Robbie and I later got to talk to him and turns out he is staying at his Grandma's house across the street ( a lady who runs a home daycare) for the summer. His Dad is deployed in the air force - he usually lives in Hawaii! He was super polite and a nice boy, although 10 years old. But a good match for Jimmy sports-wise. I am sooo happy for Jimmy to have found someone in the neighborhood to play with. And I'm really proud of him for making a new friend. He was very excited and proud of himself for having introduced himself. He was wondering if it was O.K. if he told his school friends that he had made a new friend. :) Pretty cool!