Friends

Kira has a new friend.

Our new neighbors moved in about a month ago and they happen to have a 4 year old daughter. Well, Kira and The Friend hit it off immediately. Now The Friend's mother and I wake up to our little girls begging to be together. It is really a lot of fun to see this new friendship and to watch the two girls play together. They spend hours a day with each other and rarely disagree. Yes, I know that will likely change when all this novelty wears off, but for now we both just love watching our girls enjoy each other's company.

The Friend and Kira, of course, have started excluding Marisa from their play because she's "too little" or "too young" to play with them. I struggle with this because Marisa really is too young to fully understand that she is not being included and is just being a pest when she's following the two girls around. My rule here is that nobody gets to be mean to anybody else, including Marisa, but I know that I will have to intervene eventually with some kind of exciting distractions for the baby.

Today I have invited The Friend and her mom to join us for a trip to the park. The two girls can play to their little hearts' content and dear Marisa will have plenty of distractions to keep her busy, too. I'm excited. The Friend and her family moved here from Maryland and know very little about the area, so our trip to the park is my chance to show my new friend around her new town. (Lucky me, I hit it off with The Friend's mom just as well as Kira hit it off with The Friend.

This whole excluding of the baby sister is new territory for me. I'm not sure exactly how to maneuver through all of this because I respect that Kira and her friend will want and need time away from Marisa. I also fee for Marisa as I know she will come to resent being excluded unless I make it something special for her when the other two are busy excluding. I also know that this is all a normal part of growing up and finding their own way and their own identities separate from each other.