Slow-Poke

My son's the kind of kid (so far anyway) that takes awhile to "warm up" to new things. Sometimes this frustrates me because I want him to enjoy the new fun thing we're trying to get him to do instead of sitting on the sidelines watching, but I'm trying to be patient with him. Here are a couple examples of his reticence.

Last weekend we were in Lubbock. Abuelo & Abuela took Daniel to one of those jump-around places with all the inflatables. It wasn't a huge one - it was aimed for kids under nine years of age, so there was nothing super scary. But Daniel refused to get on any of the jumping things for probably an hour - instead choosing to play on the little toys in the corner, meant more for little siblings (maybe 1 year olds) that weren't big enough to play on the inflatables. He spent far too long spinning the hands on the little clock in the pretend house versus jumping like a wild monkey in the inflatables. He finally warmed up to it an hour later and played on one of the inflatables. He wouldn't go on any of the others, including the really cool looking slide, but I felt like it was at least a small step.

We've been going to the library almost every week, probably since Daniel was about 6 months old. They have some great programs. Anyway, we've switched classes a few times, and we started going to the pre-school age class about 6 or 8 months ago. They play some of the same songs that were played in the younger class, but there are a lot of new ones too. Daniel refused to take any part in the songs (though he knew the songs as was evidenced via the monitor at nap time) while at the library and would instead sit on my lap and watch all the other kids have a good time. Finally, today (after 6-8 months, remind you!), he joined in the fun. He jumped around, carried a bear on his head, and even fell on the ground at the right spots. I hope he realized how much more fun it is to join in than to sit on the side and watch!

Pray for my patience as my slow-poke picks up new things!