Stuck Up

Have you ever not known something about yourself until you heard someone else say it?

Last summer, Kael was invited to a birthday party in our neighborhood and I was a little unsure of letting him go. The boys there would be older, we didn't know the family that well, the boys would be swimming in their backyard pool, and Kael just hadn't been to a lot of birthday parties and I wasn't sure if he would "get" the assumed behavior at a birthday party. So, I did what I thought was best. I let him go, but talked to the mom a little bit before the party about Kael's diagnosis and that if she had any concerns, she could call me. (We live a whole 3 houses away.)

Naturally, I watched the party from our front yard, a nervous wreck. Would Kael stick his fingers in the cake before they had a chance to sing? (He LOVES frosting.) Would he be OK swimming by himself? Would he sit in the corner and not play with anyone? The boys were inside for most of the party but eventually made their way out to the front where a slip 'n slide was. Other neighbors (mostly little siblings of kids who had been invited) started making their way over so Kylee and I followed.

I was talking with the dad as we watched the kids play and after a short while, he said to me, "Well, you guys are kind of the stuck up neighbors." Ouch. Clearly my overprotectiveness of Kael had gained me a reputation I wasn't proud of. I wanted to tell him what kind of neighbor I thought he was. I didn't. I wanted to defend myself. I didn't.

I thought long and hard about his comment. He was right. I was kind of stuck up. At the time, I tended to let Kael and Kylee play with the kids who I thought were "good kids". Like, the ones who always told their moms where they were before they came into my house. The ones who always looked both ways before they crossed the street. The ones who shared. The ones who helped clean up after they had dragged every last toy out of our garage.

What a disservice I was doing to Kael and Kylee. Clearly in life they will come across many kids who aren't "good kids" and they will have to decide for themselves if they're going to pick up that sort of behavior or stick to their guns and do what is right.

Since then, I've tried hard to bite my tongue when one of the girls says something mean to Kylee. I try harder to pitch a few extra baseballs to Kael's buddies. Kent jokes that some of the neighborhood kids are still scared of me, but what can I say? I've got high standards.

Fast forward a year and today we had The Best Day With Neighbor Kids. (No, not just the "good ones". All of them. :)

Earlier this summer as I was working on our Bucket List, one of the neighbor boys asked if we could have a picnic in the treehouise. We weren't available to do it that day so I added that to our Summer Bucket List: "Treehouse picnic with Logan and family". Yesterday was the day: two moms and six kids, PB & J's, juice boxes, chips and watermelon. It was as awesome as it sounds.

Pre-picnic

All the kids were back and forth between houses a hundred times and my earlier promise of going to the pool was easily forgotten as the kids went inside, outside, played "bad guys", played "mommies", and built forts, while my neighbor and I sat out front in lawn chairs just talking and watching the kids play.



A pleasant mix of Nerf darts, baby clothes, Legos and play food was strewn about my house long after the kids had gone home. I looked at the mess and smiled to myself knowing that I didn't care the kids had left before every last toy was put back in place. All I cared was that my kids had a fantastic day with some new friends.