the social Dennis

This morning was Story Hour at the library, a time Dennis and I have looked forward to since last week. Now that he has turned three, the world has completely opened up to him. He can go to Story Hour, he's in real classes at church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, and he's going to swim class. Four days a week he gets to go to a class setting with other children his age. He seems thrilled about it and talks about going to his different activities often. I would like to be the proverbial fly on the wall to watch how he acts in class, how he gets along with the other kids, whether he initiates conversation or plays alone, whether or not he talks to the teacher... The Sunday School teacher has told me that he is the sweetest child (which I take as a report of good behavior), and maybe I'll hear more as time passes. It could be that no news is good news, that they'd only tell me if there was a problem.

I let Dennis hang out in the library for 45 minutes after the end of Story Hour to play with the Thomas the Train table, and we had some lessons about sharing trains with the other little boy that was playing there. His mother got him to leave by promising to take him and his brother to the playground, and when Dennis and I left a while later, Dennis asked to go there as well. We did--it has been a BEAUTIFUL day, sunny, breezy, seventies, and Dennis enjoyed sliding down the fireman pole and talking about fighting fires. The pair of little boys from the library heard him and the older one walked up to him (they are five and almost four, their Mom says) and asked him "would you like to play firefighter with us?". A very joyful Dennis yelled "YES!" and what followed was about 20 minutes of a line of boys marching and running and saying "let's go to the fire station" and "let's get the hoses" and "the fire bell is ringing" and other important fire-related phrases. They slid down poles and climbed up ladders and drove the 'truck' around and around. Dennis was not the leader, and I think it was a great experience for him to follow. He spoke up and made suggestions ("let's go slide down the pole now") occasionally, and sometimes he was told that it was a good idea and they would all go and do it. It was so much fun to watch him playing with the bigger boys and holding his own, and it was also nice to not be a fireman myself for once!

Tonight Dennis recited the entire Lord's Prayer himself. It isn't perfect (he says "my kingdom come" and "give us the daily bread" and things like that), but it's SO sweet, and he does such a good job!