The boy had a friend over this morning. It was his first time having a guest in that fashion. Things went very nicely. The only caveat being some poor behavior when the Wife denied their request for candy after lunch. I was picking up the lass at that point, so I missed the events personally. Regardless, I certainly wouldn’t have a problem having his friend over again.
The visit was just for the morning- so it was a kind of feeling-each-other-out kind of thing. They went through most of the toys fairly quickly, probably some kind of inventory-ing. His friend asked if they could watch TV. When I replied “No” I got a look along the lines of “What dimension did I land in here?” Finally they settled on running through a sprinkler and spraying each other with water.
One moment worth noting for what didn’t happen was when the boy and his friend knocked heads (unintentionally) while running through the sprinkler. It was clearly a painful collision. But the moment became somewhat humorous as both immediately fought back tears. Neither wanted to be seen crying in front of the other. After they settled down, the boy hurt himself again while on the swing. His wet swim-trunks slipped on the swing seat. He got hurt in the process of keeping himself from flying off the swing. As the pain settled in, he dashed behind the swing set so that his friend wouldn’t see. I calmly walked down to check on him, making sure not to raise any alarms for his friend to pick up on. He once again settled down and resumed playing. No more incidents after that.
Normally, these incidents would have resulted in long, drawn out tear-filled tantrums. Further, in all likelihood, the boy would have let his temper get the better of him- snapping at me for daring to try and help. The presence of his friend eliminated all of that.
Perhaps I’ll have him over more often…