My Way of Yelling From the Rooftops

We are at the sand area that is by our local pool, trying to squeeze in 1 1/2 hours before therapy.  It is an amazing place with all kinds of buckets and shovels and rakes and a contraption you can push to make water come out.  Matthew loves it here.  The only thing that could make it better is if there was a trampoline.  If you read Message to Snarky Woman you already know that he is attracted to sand toys.  (If you didn't read it yet...you can click on it from here...at least I hope...if I did the link right!)  Today there was no stealing of toys and only a little bit of coveting of the orange castle bucket, which was quickly in his possession as soon as it left the little boy's hand.  And thank goodness this story doesn't involve nakedness, because well there is always that possibility!

Matthew was sitting along the curb at the edge of the sand area.  A little girl of about three years old came up to him and dumped water in his bucket.  Her mom called out to her, "Make sure he wants you to pour water in his bucket."  She went back to the fountain of water and got more water.  She hesitantly came back to Matthew and smiled.  He pointed to his bucket and she poured it in and smiled again.  Matthew signed water.  Whether she knew that sign or not, she went back and got more water. While she was getting water Matthew would pour the water into an even bigger bucket.  This same scenario played out numerous times.

No words crossed between them.  They didn't need any.  They were playing.  They were playing TOGETHER!  This wasn't parallel play (each playing a similar thing, but alongside each other). Typically when Matthew plays it is either parallel play or him trying to get another kid (or adult) to do what he wants.  (i.e. he will attempt to put a bucket in another kid's hand to get them to fill it with sand, which is not usually met with cooperation, I might add).  But this was different...she initiated play and he accepted. She wanted to pour water in his bucket and he wanted to let her.  Matthew's back was to me so I couldn't see his face, but I could clearly see the little girl's face and she was smiling and having fun.

Because playing with someone else in this way is soooo huge, I feel like yelling it from the rooftops.  Lucky for me I have this blog instead!  I know not every time that we go there will be like this time.  Sometimes it will be like Sunday, when there was only one other girl in the sand area with us and he wanted the one bucket (yes, it was the orange castle bucket) that she had.  But the fact that this time DID happen reminds me of why we keep going back.

This post is shorter than usual, because just like Matthew and the little girl, I don't need a lot of words.  In fact, I wish I could have done this whole post in pictures.  Maybe next time, because in my heart I know there will be another time.