What This House Needs Is Extra Kids

My incredibly good friend Sandra has driven out from Pennsylvania to hang out with me, help me pack, and attempt to keep me relatively sane.  She brought her adorable twin five-year-old girls, because:

• They are escaping the Great Snowpocolypse of 2011.

• Obviously what my house needs right now is more children.  Preferably ones with jars of glitter.  In fact, I bet if I give each of the six children an open jar of glitter, I'll get a call for a showing right now.

• She's the kind of person who thinks, "You know what sounds fun?  Throwing a couple of preschoolers in the van and taking a drive to IKEA.  Or maybe Houston." 

I have friends that are awesome.

Actually, the addition of two kids totally does make this situation better.  I always find that having more kids over ends up being less work for me.  My kids are distracted and for a change they don't want my attention. 

What's really interesting for me is watching Little Dude interact with these two little girls.  Minnie and Daisy are "typically developing," in the sense that they're not on the spectrum.  They are, however, brilliant. 

I don't often get the chance to see how Little Dude interacts with kids his own age.  He's had a few playdates with boys his age, and had fun but was worn out and overwhelmed pretty quickly. At playgrounds, or in waiting rooms, he doesn't initiate conversation with other kids. He's either really content playing on his own, or the thought of engaging with someone is just too stressful to consider; I'm not sure which.

Although he doesn't suggest activities to play with Minnie and Daisy, he's happy to go along with whatever the rest of the group is playing.  Periodically he'll become frustrated or overwhelmed, and retreat for a break. 

Minnie and Daisy don't seem to notice that Little Dude is a little different.  Maybe they just expect lots of quirkiness at our house, or maybe their parents have taught them to be accepting, or maybe they think all boys are weird.  Or maybe they just don't think he's any nuttier than any other kid their age.  I mean, this is an age group that really enjoys putting underwear on their heads.  So perhaps Little Dude's social difficulties pass unnoticed.

In any case, having our friends here has blown life and energy back into our family.  While we're still here, we're going to try to soak up as much as possible of the stuff that we do love about Texas.  We're going to take our friends to shop for cowgirl hats, we're going to eat tons of that awesome coconut ice cream, and we're going to play outside in the sunshine.  The grown-ups are going to try Shiner Bock and we're all going to try Crawtators.

I'll report back on the Crawtators.