Saturday, February 8, 2014

Silly Rafi

Rafi has a really lovely silly side. Indeed he's silly a lot of the time. He likes move his body in silly way, while making silly sounds, and saying silly things. Last week during a birthday party, where Raf was basically the only kiddo being super silly, I saw myself urging him to rein it in, to be a little less silly, thus not to be too conspicuous.

I regretted all of this immediately.

He is the kind of kiddo that asks his friends to watch him be silly; he asks them for hugs, and as I watch on I sometimes feel such anxiety that his friends will say 'no', that they'll look on disapprovingly. And of course sometimes they DO say 'no' when he wants a hug (heartbreak), and he's completely fine! And sometimes they're not terribly excited to watch him in his silliness, and other times they laugh and join in. Raf has lots of friends at school. He has his best friend, Rowan, who's in another class, but he has lots of buddies in his own class. He's a bit of a butterfly, flitting from group to group (just like his mama), and his teachers tell us that he can play with anyone depending on his mood and his friends' moods.

Sometimes he's grumpy and cross, too. This past Thursday he woke up in a grumpy mood. He argued with Charlie, got cross, and sort of thumped him on the back (not quite a thump but his little fist was close to whacking Charlie on the back, driven by frustration that was clearly coursing through Raf's little body. When I picked him up from school I asked his teachers how his day had gone and Ms. Jesse said, 'um, okay'. Not the usual glowing report we ordinarily receive.

She explained that as she called the children to come inside, Raf shouted, 'NO'. Ms. Jesse said she had to look twice to see who had said it as it's really not like Raf. Apparently he agreed fairly quickly to come in. There were a few more episodes throughout the day, and more when he was in car... having a breakdown that Charlie had eaten a bit of his snack sandwich I bring with me in the car.

That night, as we were all trying to get to sleep, he said, "Mummy, sorry I wasn't kind earlier. My body just woke up in a naughty way".

This morning he said he woke up with his body feeling "kind". I have to say it was a much better day!

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