{allanmia.com}

I took Aidan to our neighborhood park today and he spent quite a long time on the swings. It was only last year that he was deathly afraid of swings, thinking that he might fall off. And one time I forced him to go on it just to show him that it wasn't so bad and he cried so loud that I saw all the other mothers at the park turn to look at us. What an embarrassing experience. Well, today was so different. He said, "I'm going to stay here forever." But I think he was having fun because he was trying to kick me while I was pushing him from the front.

We had the park all to ourselves for a while before another family came. There was a girl, about six or so, and her brother, probably two years old, and Aidan kept following them around because he wanted to play with them. The girl was pushing her brother along to keep away from Aidan but I don't think my boy realized what she was doing. So I stopped Aidan and told him to ask them if he could play with them. After following them around some more, he asked the girl and he was finally let into the group. Woohoo! I noticed too how Aidan is so watchful of others that he even warned the girl several times that what she was doing (like climbing in precarious places) was dangerous and she could bonk her head and die. A little extreme but to the point! He just loves playing with other kids and I'm so proud of him when I see how well he handles himself in social situations.