Ding Dong Ding

Hey,
I have a song going thru my head. Well, not so much a song but those 3 words, Ding Dong Ding. A~ had a little group recital at his Pre-k today. And oh what drama. The poor kid has developed a case of stage fright. Which is odd considering the fact that he performs "concerts" for us every day sometimes 2-3 times a day! Granted he doesn't sing, he dances, and it's just us. He dances to Gwen Stefani's "laya-laya-lah"(aka. Wind it up) or Sweet Escape these days. But he was so worried last night he was up with nightmares until about 3am. We first let him know that talking about it to his teacher would probably help a lot, I bet she's dealt with this before. Then when he was still worried and crying we assured him that if he would rather stay home it was OK. I hoped he'd go, and face his fears, but I didn't want to put pressure on the little guy. K~ being the dad, let me handle most of it, because his instinct was to tell him he had to go and that he'd just have to deal. Which is normal. But made me think that it'd end up being (what we call) a green bean thing. Force a kid to eat green beans, he'll never eat them again. Be supportive in him trying green beans and he may try them, and in A~'s case may grow to like them.
K~ didn't eat green beans until he was 28. (and he still won't touch canned ones)
So, this morning after I went to work K~ asked A~ if he wanted to go to school. A~ said "yes"! Then he said "I want to make you proud" (Awwww). K~ told him that he was proud even if he chose not to go. But he went and he sang, no tears. He looked very determined and even smiled once or twice.

He really is such a serious kid sometimes. He reminds me of me. And I think it's an only child thing. There's just too much time to think. Parents don't make good playmates, and there aren't any kids in our neighborhood. Plus, he's 5 I'm not going to let him run to a friends house anyway, even if there were kids. ME I was tooling around the neighborhood on my big wheel. I think I 'ran away' every week. Which was just a quick big wheel away to the park. Often I was hanging out at Mrs. Q's house eating doughnuts (I called her my adopted grandma) or waiting around in the yard for the mailman Gordy to bring me mail and hand me rubber bands from his big bag. Ahhh, the 1970's. People would toss moms in jail for half the crap I did alone as a kid! But then I'm sure the previous generation was thinking they were too over protective!
People my grandparent's generation probably wonder what the heck kids do nowadays, when do kids get to run wild? My parents never seemed to have adult supervision in the stories they tell. I should ask.
Anyway, I feel bad that A~ doesn't have a sibling to play or bug or teach or fight with. I know my life is a lot more 2 dimensional because I didn't grow up with a sibling (I have one, but I was 17 when he was born). No matter how hard you try, friends do not replace siblings.
Someday I hope our family will be 4 of us instead of 3.

House news: The doors are still beautiful! I am often found standing in the living room admiring the new front door, mumbling to myself "wow".
We did do actual work this weekend!
A~ went to Nana's, while K~ and I painted the office and bathroom.
NEXT UP: decluttering and a new kitchen floor.

And in trivial news; I'm addicted to a computer game, Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. It's sad, I know.