thursday afternoon i texted a friend and neighbor of mine to say, "miss seeing you. let's get together soon!". she texted right back saying, "i'll be home tomorrow afternoon with the kids, doing nothing. come over for wine!". friday was kind of crazy day at school and we planned to go to dinner and the football game last night. so when i got home from school, i knew i only had a short time before meeting pb for dinner after his shoot. i decided to forgo my usual afternoon walk and enjoy the afternoon with my neighbor. em and i walked over to her house around 4:30. it was such a gorgeous day. i was a little concerned that she might be bored or uneasy hanging out while we sat outside catching up. my friend has 5 children and the oldest is emily's age. there is also another friend next door with a daughter in 6th grade. emily knows these girls but not that well. they go to different schools and just haven't been around each other that much. she said that she wanted to go so i knew she would probably be just fine. when we walked up, all of the kids were outside playing. my neighbor had the wine and the glasses out on the table and ready to go. she introduced em to the girls and they said they were playing capture the flag. there was also another friend, a 7th grade girl, visiting. at emily's age, i would have been intimidated by this. i would have been reluctant to jump right in...especially with "older" girls. not em. she got right in there and started playing and before we knew it, the girls had gone inside to hang out.
when it was time to meet pb downtown for dinner, em was not really ready to go. we walked to johnny's for pizza and on the way she said she had so much fun meeting some new friends. my friend had even commented on how great she was and how amazing it was that she just got right in there with them and was so at ease. i am so thankful because i have been wanting em to have some friends to hang out with in our neighborhood.
there is something about emily. there is a confidence about her with so many things that i hope she always holds onto. she is a thinker. she gets it.
when i picked her up from school yesterday, she told me that 2 of her friends tried to get a boy in their class to "ask her out"...that cracks me up. he said "no" because she didn't have the "kind of looks" that he liked. he said a few other things that i would like to punch him for but i realize he is only 10. when she told me, i could tell that it hurt her feelings but i could also sense that on a deeper level, she knew that what he said was not the truth and not that valuable of an opinion. she asked me not to say anything about it to anyone. however, at dinner, i brought it up to pb in front of her. i wanted her to hear his opinion of her...the opinion of somebody that loves her and sees her clearly. (he wanted to punch the kid too.)
after dinner, em and i walked home by ourselves to hurry and change for the ballgame. i told her that i was not trying to betray any confidence she had in me by telling that story to pb. but i wanted her to hear the truth from someone that counts. she was really ok with the whole thing. and pb remarked later that she really does "get it". we could tell that the incident hurt her feelings, but it didn't slow her down for the rest of the afternoon. she knows with some level of maturity that is beyond me, what really matters.
so thankful for that beautiful fall afternoon yesterday. and some precious time with emily...and for pb being there for her.
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