The boy makes a friend

My husband’s at this weekend-long conference which leaves me alone with the two kids. To kill some time this afternoon, I took them to the Pirate Ship, this crazy-ass indoor playground structure with a huge pirate ship (duh…) with slides, wooden suspension bridges, caves and lots of fun spaces to explore.

The girl went bonkers, loving the freedom to run around, climb and slide. She’s much braver than the boy. While he hesitantly attempted to climb up a set of barrels, she was clamouring up on all fours, leaving him in the dust.

There was this adorable 3 year old girl there with the cutest smattering of freckles. She caught the boy’s eye. He turns to me and says, “Mommy, I’m going to go play with her.”

“Okay,” I said.

I bumped into some old friends who were there with their 20-month old. We chatted and watched the kids play. The boy and freckles were really getting along, chasing each other up the stairs, coming down the slide together. It was so cute.

The boy, freckles and the girl

The girl was watching them for a while, then started taking interest in my friends’ 20-month old. She chased him for a bit, played for a while, but it was all over when she spotted the 6 year old with the bag of crackers. She instantly forgot about the toddler and went lumbering after the kid. And she was relentless. The poor boy (who had started out acting pretty tough) finally ran up to his mother, defeated. He pointed at the girl and said, “I think she wants a cracker.”

The mother laughed and nodded. The kid offered the girl the cracker, which she took. She blew him a kiss (hand to g-d) turned on her heel and walked off.

What a piece of work.

When it came time to leave, freckles was also getting into her jacket.

“Bye,” the boy called to her, waving.

“Bye,” she said, “I love you.”

The boy turned to me and smiled. He held my hand as we walked out of the mall.

“Mommy, ” he said, “I made a friend today.”

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