You've got a friend.

For those of you who have read here for awhile or know us IRL, you know that my big boy used to be a wee bit anti-social. Key words: used to be. Don't get me wrong, he always loved grown-ups just fine...it was other children that did him in.

Mine was the eighteen month old that would perch atop playground equipment and squawk at other children for trying to come aboard. Sometimes he would say "NO, KIDS!! GO HOME, KIDS! MINE!!" He was the two-year old who had no children over for his birthday party, because I knew he would spend the whole time hoarding toys and none of the time enjoying his day. He is occasionally the 2 1/2 year old who has to say, before exiting the car at parks and other people's houses, "I will be nice, mommy...and I won't say 'mine' to any kids."

Well-meaning friends kept telling us to put him into a MDO or playgroup....well-meaning family members and mentors kept saying he would grow out of it and to just enjoy the time he wanted to be around only us. We decided to listen to the family/mentors. Afterall, nobody knows anyone else's kid like the people who are around him all the time. Also, when it comes to my kiddos, I can honestly say that anytime I've ever been really concerned about something and 'nothing' seemed to be working, waiting it out has never steered me wrong.

Sure enough, shortly after his second birthday, the H-man started to turn it around. I like to think that it was a combination of advancing age and a really sweet little girl we know.

The first time she came to our house to play, Henry laid on top of his toys and wouldn't let her touch them. He swatted at her little brother. He had a thirty-minute long tantrum...the second half of which was spent in the comfort of his crib. Fail. Go ahead and add to that aforementioned 'combination' - other parents willing to let us practice being nice and sharing and not beating the stew out of each other on their kids.

The next time (yes, there was a next time!) we tried going to her house instead, and voila...

...thus began the most adorable of friendships. Theirs is a mutually beneficial, yet sweetly simple, sort of buddyship...he keeps her from becoming too prissy and trains her in the art of brother-take-downs.

She helps him with his manners and shows him how prissy can actually be a good thing.

He is very protective of her. Very.

And I think she's proud of how far he's come since the day he piled his toys into a closet and climbed atop so she couldn't have any.

His first friend. A milestone 2 1/2 years in the making. And, yes, he has decided that she can come to our house now, too.

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."     ~C.S. Lewis