Mr. Friendly

I've decided that I greatly enjoy taking public transportation with Ben.  During the week, I catch the train too, but engross myself in whatever study or work material I've brought, and completely tune out the people around me.  But there's something about Ben's total lack of inhibitions that brings people out of their shell.  In 2 hours of public transit today, Ben made 5 friends out of unsuspecting adults.  And that's not even counting the grownups he endeared at the arts festival.  He is something else - jumps right in introducing himself with his name and age and then engages them in conversation.  He's always been a chatterbox, but he's a good listener too.  The kid has conversation skills all figured out.  He asks questions about the other person and expresses genuine interest in what they reply.  He even compliments them!  It's amazing to watch. As a result I feel like a lucky bystander that gets introduced to fascinating people by my 4 year old son.  Granted, sometimes lack of stranger danger can be a little unnerving in the world we live in.  But overall, I'm sure glad that I have such a friendly and caring boy in my life!

A few tidbits from the arts festival... someone had made this huge papermache dragon and one of the volunteers was adding scales that the kids had made when Ben came upon it.  Ben says to me as she's listening, "I've never seen one of these before, what is it?"  "A dragon", I say.  "No" Ben says "Dragons have wings and this thing doesn't have any wings"  The volunteer chuckled and when we ran into her later shared that she had passed his comment on to the artist - and the artist had decided she better make that dragon some wings!  Ben was also sure to tell a musician how much he liked his music, and share with an artist that he thought the earrings she had made were really cool.  What a sweetheart!  Alex for his part, was very grumpy thanks to the shots and blood draw he endured this morning.  We had fun anyway!

He chose the violin over all the other instruments! Maybe he'll follow in his momma's footsteps.