Busy weekend...

It was a busy weekend.  Let's recap.

Saturday morning was Allison's friend Lily's birthday party.  It was an indoor party place with a bunch of inflatable slides and jumpies and stuff.  Allison and Lily were friends at Dorrie's daycare, but now they go to different preschools, which means that Allison was going to a party where she really only knew one person, and where that one person knew and was friends with everyone else.  In spite of that disadvantage, she had a grand old time running around and playing.  It was a lot of fun to watch her be confident in situations where previously she would have shied away.

A good example is a bunch of kids all trying to get into a jump-house at the same time through a narrow door.  Old Allison would have shied back and waited for everyone else to go through before going herself.  New Allison shoulder in along with the stampede.

We came home that afternoon, and then headed out to the Buhr's house for a going away party for Justin and Maja.  Again, it was interesting to watch her interact (or not) with the kids there.  Jaxon and Landon are older and get along well together, racing around and playing games and stuff.  While Tyler is closer to Allison's age, I think he prefers to tag along with the older boys.  None of them go out of their way to invite or exclude Allison from any of their activities, and she certainly doesn't join in with the games that they're playing on her own.  I'm not sure whether Colton was playing with the other boys or off on his own doing his own thing.  Maybe some of both.  Allison seemed happy enough running around and doing her own thing, or hanging out with her parents.

The best part of the night, though, was in the late evening as the sun was getting low.  An impromptu soccer game was going with Norm and some of the boys.  Then another adult joined in, and then another and another, and then the rest of the kids.  Soon it was like 6v7 soccer, with full sized adults and kids running around.  Allison was right out there with us.  She didn't care much for actually kicking the ball and playing soccer, but she had a great time running around, shrieking and screaming and laughing.  We played until we couldn't see anymore.  It was a lot of fun.

On Sunday, we decided to hit up the Imax theater and space museum with my parents, but soon remembered it was Earth Day and a total cluster down there.  So we aborted and went to lunch and walked on the docks and saw boats, and then over to Seaport Village to see the sights.  It was nice.  Diana and Allison then spent the afternoon with Diana's parents, while I went over to Eryn's for some board games.

Allison is still kind of hot-and-cold with her temper and demeanor.  Sometimes she can be so sweet, but she can still burst into tears at the slightest little thing.  She also has been very demanding and insistent, and we've been doing a poor job of regulating that.  We recently told her flat out that we're not going to do anything she asks unless she says "Please".  That's been extended to basic politeness, like saying hello and goodbye to people, saying "thank you", etc.  I've already seen a big improvement in the last couple days, so I'm encouraged to stick with it.

All of the above -- the whining and crying and having a hard time saying hi and bye -- remind me of myself as a kid.  So it shouldn't be too surprising, I guess.

Kindergarten registration is coming up.  Lots of papers to fill out.  There was a questionnaire for the teachers to get to know your kid, and one of the questions was "Is your child a leader or follower?"  It's an interesting question that I'm not sure how to answer.