holiday stuff

This has been a pretty cruisey holiday really. After being away for the first week the kids have been content to hang at home. We have had some friends over, been to the park and library, been to a friend's house.

Yesterday we had lunch at Bianca's place, with her sister and niece, who is the same age as Ruby. Ruby and Darcy have known eachother since they were babies and they are good friends, even though they only see eachother a few times a year. It was a nice day, the kids (mine, Bianca's, Darcy plus an extra boy from school who was staying) all play so well together. There are no dramas, no sharing issues, no intense supervision needed now. Later we took them all across to the big park nearby. It was starting to get dim, as the sun had gone behind the mountain and air was turning icy cold. The children's shouts and laughter rang out and echoed as they played with the football, climbed trees and ran through the grass. These kids have turned out ok! They are all so kind to eachother. Simon kicked the football in a wobbly arc, not particularly far and Nathan ran up to him, clapped him on the back and exclaimed, "Great kick, Simon!" Simon grinned across his red, rosy face, threw me a glance to check i was watching and ran back to the game.

My only heartache came from watching Dexie wandering alone, talking to himself on the other side of the park. I waved to him and he gave me a smile and a wave back, but he wouldn't join in with the other boys. Later I asked him if he'd had a nice time at the park and he was sad and said that no one would play with him. He didn't want to play football and felt left out.