Friendly

Asher is kind of a solitary kid. For years he's been responding to questions about who his friends are with answers like, "Just Riley" or "I don't have any friends." And he's not complaining when he says that. In fact, he almost seems a little proud of it. Soon after he started going to the nursery at church at 18 months old, he would claim only one boy in the group as his friend. That stayed consistent until we moved just after his 3rd birthday.

Since our move, he's talked about a couple of the kids in his church group, but usually insisted that none of them were his friends. As his fourth birthday was approaching, I suggested that he think of two friends that he'd like to invite to his party. I limited the guest list to two, not because I wanted a small party, but because I knew even that small number would be a stretch for him. But he didn't hesitate to name one boy and one girl that he wanted to invite. Yea, the boy has two friends now!

On Thursday he told us that he'd made a new friend in his tumbling class. This was huge for Asher! "He does what I do and then I do what he does." Sounds like a good start to a friendship, right? He told us about this new friend, "He's Korean, like Tyson." Then I remembered seeing the boy he was talking about and told Asher, "He might be Chinese." "No Mom," he quickly corrected, "he's five. He told me that." Oh, well if he's five he is obviously not Chinese. When I asked Asher if he knew the name of this new friend he answered, "He told me it, but I forgot. Lame!"