Parallel Play

AJ had his little buddy, L., over for a playdate last week, and it was like the definition of parallel play to watch them together. I didn't know this before becoming a mom, but apparently playing together and interacting with other kids is a social skill that kids don't pick up until somewhere around age 2. Until then, they just play next to each other. This seems a funny to me, because AJ will interact and play with adults, but it is true that he doesn't seem to know how to engage other kids his age, and they are the same way. Every so often, though, I will catch them watching each other to see what the other one is up to. It is not subtle, watching-you-out-of-the-corner-of-my-eye glancing, it is full on openly staring at the other kid. Joe finds it amusing that AJ has no self-consciousness about staring at other people yet and gets a kick out of seeing AJ ogle someone in the grocery store, at the pool, etc. The one time the boys interacted the other day was when one had a toy that the other wanted, which would spur some direct interaction as they tried to get it away from the other guy while looking up at me and pleading to be awarded the prize.

It was also fun for me to watch L and see how he is different from AJ. L is a very physical guy who is a fast runner, loves to play with push toys, and (my favorite) likes to spin around in circles with one arm up in the air. By comparison, AJ is more into crayons and scribbling on paper (he is obsessed with crayons lately), naming things and working with puzzles. Their common love, though, is water. You can see that they have matching swim shirts on in the pictures above, and they spent some quality time splashing around in the water table.