Two Days, Two Sides
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: Lauren
On Mondays Lauren attends a park and rec activity at the nearby elementary school. Normally Tony brings her and he has never had a problem with dropping her off and retreating to the car for 45 minutes of reading. This past Monday, however, I had the day off and took her over. Earlier that morning she had firmly stated "Now Mom. I'm used to going by myself. You can sit in the car and read." which I wholeheartedly agreed to do. The rest of the morning she kept repeating that I should walk her to the shack and then go back to the car to read. I think she was, in some way, trying to make herself more relaxed by reassuring herself that this was the routine and there was nothing to worry about. We arrived and walked to the shack. We entered and Lauren was greeted by the "girls in blue". She went over to start coloring a picture and I told her to have fun and I would see her later. Boom. The tears started and she was attached to my leg in a minute flat. I tried to get her started by helping her pick out a color for the flower picture, but she would have none of it. I looked at one of the girls, shrugged, and mouthed "must be a mom thing". Finally one of them came over and took Lauren's hand while I walked out the door. Of course, she was fine and enjoyed her time there, but oh the agony.

On Tuesday Lauren and I stopped at the indoor playground to get out of the 95 degree heat. Not long into play a girl came over and asked Lauren to play only to find out she had to leave. Lauren decided she was going to find someone to play with. She asked another girl to play and ran back to me to tell me she thought the girl had said no. She asked a second girl who turned and walked away. She asked a third girl who replied that she was with her sister, but Lauren could play with them. She began playing with them only to have the grandmother scold the girl for not playing with her sister (which what's up with that?!) Three times Lauren ventured to ask someone to play with her and three times she ended up with no one to play with. I was getting worried it was going to cause a reversion back to not playing with anyone, but Lauren surprised me. A fourth, younger girl came in and Lauren asked her to play. Bingo! They played a follow-the-leader type game where the other girl was the leader and Lauren the follower. Lauren was happy and proud that she was playing with someone. When they came around near us parents, Lauren would beam and ask "Do you see me playing with that girl?" or "Look at me. I'm playing with that girl!" This continued on for about 15 minutes until the girl became upset that Lauren was copying her. So I had to explain to her that the girl didn't want to play follow-the-leader anymore. Since that's the only game that's ever played by the kids at the indoor playground, Lauren didn't quite understand the girl wanted to play, just not that particular game.

So there you have it. One day shy, the next outgoing. Sometimes I wonder which will win. I have a feeling it will turn out to be a combination of both with a slight tendency toward outgoing and I say Yeah! for Lauren.