A pretty exciting thing happened today!
We spent the day at my parents house, visiting with them, as well as my brother, sister in law, and their two boys. We haven’t seen their family in around a year, which is CRAZY! It was super important to catch up a bit as soon as possible, and get them acquainted with Rowan. It was a lovely visit, and all five of the kids did well together. I never put big expectations on that type of scenario, because they are five kids under five, and one can only “expect” so much. Dekker has always been shy, and when he’s spent time with some of his other cousins, he gravitates towards the older ones. This Christmas, he was three, and loved his eight year old cousin. He was more and more timid, it seemed, the closer they got to him in age, which was actually really sad, since he would hug the older boys but not the younger one. Lots of crying.
I know Simon and Grace’s oldest son especially has tried to engage Dekker in the past, only to be rejected time and time again. At once point today, though, he asked Dekker if he wanted to come play downstairs. I actually watched Dekker’s face as he thought about it, and then he said “Ya. I’d like to.” And they went! It wasn’t long before Laela joined them. No one dared go downstairs and watch, or take pictures, or anything of the sort, for fear of disturbing the fun and tempting someone to head back upstairs.
NOT ONCE was there an argument, or any crying. We eventually had to go bring everyone upstairs for dessert, of all things! It was pretty epic, in my opinion. It went SO smoothly, and compared to Dekker being too shy to even speak to his cousins, this was a vast improvement! I’m so excited to see what the future has in store for all of these beautiful kids 🙂
Thanks, boys, for including Laela in the fun 🙂 I know how much she loved it!