Tuesday, September 13, 2016

At the County Fair

Because it was Kids’ day at our county fair yesterday, we were there with every other family in the entire county.

We got there a little after noon. We’d picked up Lyss’s friend Tessa and were just heading toward the rides when we ran into another of Lyss’s friend, Jasmine and her aunt. With them, was Jasmine’s cousin, Julian, a boy in Liv’s class.

He was happy to see Olivia, quick to say hi and stand there, waiting for her to acknowledge him.

She leaned into me and tried to disappear.

Julian asked me if she was this shy at home.

I laughed and said, “No! She talks all day long at home. I think it’s because she’s so quiet at school.”

He said, “I always try to be near her when she’s talking to the teachers because I want to hear her talk.”

His mom, Jasmine’s aunt, rolled her eyes and tried to get Julian to stop being quite so gregarious, telling him to give Liv some space.

I told him, “I keep telling her that she needs to talk to her classmates at school so she can make friends.”

He assured me, “We’re all friends with Olivia. We all like her a lot because she’s always so happy.”

Awwww. Can you hear my heart singing all the way to where you are? I’m glad the kids in her class still see her at friend material, even with her quirks and non-talking ways.

Julian and his mom ended up spending the day at the fair with me and Olivia while Lyss and her friends rode the bigger, more daring rides.

Julian asked me if Olivia was going to have a birthday party this year.

I told him she probably would.

He asked if he’d be invited.

His mom died right there.

I laughed and said, “Well, sure, we’ll invite the whole class.”

He said, “I’ll definitely come. I want to see where Olivia lives.”

This kid was really cute. Sure, he embarrassed his mom like crazy but I’ll give her credit, she tried really hard to correct his behavior when he got too close to Olivia and she showed discomfort. She also reminded him to use his manners and even made him back off a few times when his enthusiasm at spending time with Liv got to be too much for him.

But it was so nice for me to see a kid from her class really wanting to be near her. To see her interacting (after several hours, she was actually nodding at him when he asked her direct questions) was huge.

Every single day, my girl grows. She learns and she wants, so badly, to fit in. She’s just working on figuring out how to do that while still being herself. And I can’t fault her for that.

1 comment:

Julie said...

Our hearts must be singing duets!!

Love!