When the cat's away, the mice will play!

Yesterday we had a full day! Two events to attend.

First up was the invitation from L to join them at Barnes and Noble for some storytime activities. We had such a great visit and the boys loved playing afterward with the train table set up. It was so cute to watch them parallel playing nicely with each other. I just love watching Dominic as he interacts with other little ones.

Of course we had to buy three books! We bought a Yo Gabba Gabba board book, a set of dinosaur seek and find placemats and a How-to book showing how to draw Marvel super-heroes. The last book is actually meant for our sponsored friend, Francisco. He is 11and loves to draw. I will copy off some instructional pages and send them to him in our correspondence. I think he'll get a kick out of that!

After a LONG nap (2.5 hours!!!) we were off to playdate #2: the recipe swap. I made caprese bites while D was napping and then assembled them prior to walking out the door. We met two new faces at this meetup. C and her 6 month daughter O were just too stinkin' cute! And C made the most fabulous pineapple crumble!!! YUM-O! I've already hit her up for the recipe. Her printer died before she could print out the recipe.

I noticed that one mother in particular has a rather rambunctious son. He is constantly taking toys away from other kids and upsetting them. He did it to Dominic a couple of times, but I was always right there to intervene. She seems pretty oblivious to it all. She sits politely chatting while her child is being the group bully. This bothers me to no end and for two reasons.

1. As a former teacher I see that this behavior only escalates with no consequences are given for said behavior. They become the kids who don't realize that they are doing something wrong because they are never reprimanded at home. It makes the teacher's job so much harder to deal with when there is no support at home.

2. Children need to know that there are boundaries. Personal space. I'm sure he wouldn't like it if Dominic came up to him and just grabbed a toy away. Children, especially boys, have a pecking order. The bully shouldn't be allowed to be the top dog all the time. It should fluctuate accordingly.

I also struggle with watching as Dominic loses a toy to someone and he's not sure how to take it. He will often look at me incredulously as if to say, "did you SEE that???" I commiserate and then offer him another toy. Why should he have to continue to find another toy? We all know that toys aren't fun until someone else is playing with it, right? It would be a non-ending game!

Anyway, I am just venting about this situation. It's not going to get any better as the boys get older. I'm just going to have to get used to the fact that some days D will be the one pushed around and some days (not too often, I hope) he'll be the one doing the mischief.