CraBlogged

We took Holden to the park today, as normal, but not as normal he requested to bring along TWO of his toy trucks to play in the sand with. Why not?

We got there, he was playing nicely, when all of a sudden another boy his age entered the park. He eyed the two big tonka trucks, one a bulldozer and the other a dumptruck, and he ran straight over to Holden. I held my breath.

The one boy touched one of them, looked at Holden and said, "I want to play with this." I half expected Holden to deck him, but instead, he said, "Ok! You be the dumptruck and I'll be the bulldozer." Whew. Holden's favorite is the bulldozer - you can dig with it and scoop up sand, and there's a lever to pull which dumps all the sand right out of the scoop. I held my breath again as the other boy got tired of the dumptruck and was envious of the bulldozer, and he came over and attempted to wrest it from Holden's hand.

It's all very weird - just today, after picking him up from daycare, he was telling me how he was a bit "concerned and a little upset", and with some prying I was able to discern that it was because there's one boy there who is mean and takes toys without asking. For the next 15 minutes I explained all I could to a three year old about patience, and that little boys aren't as smart and good as him, so they'll take without asking - but to be patient with them because they're just learning what it means to be good and bad. I asked Holden what he'd do if some boy went up and grabbed a toy from him, and his reply was a bit odd, he said that he'd imagine himself to be very happy and then the happiness would float into the other boy and then he'd be happy too. Lovely sentiment but I told him that sometimes that wouldn't work. I asked him if a boy took his toy, would he, A) Punch the boy for being so mean, B) Yank the toy back because it was his toy to begin with, or C) Be patient with the boy, and ask him nicely to share. Holden quickly agreed that sharing would be the best option. But, I continued, if he didn't want to share even still, what is Holden to do? He wasn't sure and asked me what would be best, and I replied that if the boy was exceptionally mean about it, that he should alert a teacher, and told him what best to say for that and had him repeat it a few times. However, sometimes it's just best to avoid the boy and play with other toys, if he's unwilling to share and just wants to be mean.

And today it was put to the test. The boy was stopped by his mother before he actively yanked the bulldozer out of Holden's hand - but what Holden did really surprised us. He got up and said, "Here you go, you can play with this one now." I was dumbfounded - he gave up his best toy.

It didn't stop there... when another boy entered the park, and eyed the two boys playing with trucks. He looked to be circa two, and I cringed when he ran straight up to Holden and put his hand on the dumptruck. And again, Holden astonished us, when he simply stood up and let the two year old have the truck, and said, "You can share with it." Both of his toys were now being played with by other boys, and they certainly weren't doing it right. They weren't building a road at all, they were just crashing it around and using their HANDS to put dirt in! Unheard of!

And what did Holden do?

He just went up and down the slide, waiting for his turn again. He even showed the other boy how to work the lever to pull the sand out.

Such a good boy deserves 4 mini banana chocolate muffins, and to stay up late watching Willy Wonka show off his chocolate factory. <3 <3 <3