Park and Rec

At the park, Miles still plays by himself or says, "Mama, mama" to get me to follow him up the playstructure or down the slide. (He's climbing the ladders now to get up to the taller levels, almost on his own but you have to spot him.) We bring a big bag of sand toys and a dump truck to the park which he almost always ignores but all the other kids play with them so it's not a waste, plus it makes for good bartering on occasion. I wouldn't say he's shy - he always waves to another child or adult upon prompting and doesn't avoid them, and sometimes he'll play catch for a few minutes, but usually it takes either a toy or an older child to get his attention.

Yesterday there was a 2-year-old boy with a plush Mickey Mouse doll that Miles was very interested in. Inexorably drawn to, in fact. I was on the bench feeding Parker so I couldn't follow him around, but the boy's grandmother was with them so I figured I would watch and see what happened. Miles never grabbed the doll - he just wanted to look - but it made the boy really nervous. At first the boy and the doll would go down the kiddie slide, and Miles would stand at the bottom, smiling, as if to say, come on down Mickey, I'll catch you! Then the boy decided to just hang onto Mickey, and started walking away. Miles followed. The boy picked up his pace. Miles started jogging. The boy ran around the park and Miles ran too, blissfully unaware that the boy was getting anxious. I called out to the grandmother, who for some reason was unable to just tell her grandson to chill out and share, that Miles thought this was a game (Jason taught Miles to play Tag over the weekend) and just wanted to look. I've never seen him grab a toy from anyone except Parker. If anything, other kids usually grab toys from Miles and he doesn't mind. After a couple of laps around the park, Miles gave up and went to inspect some plants.

He had more fun at the swings. An older girl, maybe 6 years, was swinging on her stomach and kicking at the bark. Miles watched her for a minute and then did the same thing, which was fine by me since I had Parker in my arms and wasn't sure how I was going to lift him up onto the swing with one hand. He watched everything this girl did and would try to do it. She lifted the swing over her head and let it fall down, clanging side to side, and he did the same thing, really proud of himself. Miles starts pre-school in two weeks and will be one of the younger kids in the class, so I'm curious to see what he picks up on. Likely a mix of mad skillz and OMG-where-did-you-learn-that behavior.