"Outside! Outside!"

"Playing outside gives your child the chance to explore the natural environment and have adventures. Your child can play games, test their physical limits, express themselves and build their self-confidence." - Source: raisingchildren.net.au

Those two words, brought such joy to my heart.

Roman playing outside by himself.

My husband and I have been trying to take my son to the store or the park every single day just to get him out and socialized.

We've attempted so many other times to get him to play with other kids at the park, FINALLY, he did.

As we pulled into the parking lot at the park near our home, my son started yelling, "Outside! Outside!" his words for park. He was so excited he was laughing and trying to unbuckle his car seat.

As we stopped the car, and got out, he held my hand and ran to the playground where other kids were already enjoying the warmer fall day.

"Down Slide!"

That's what Roman would say over and over again as he climbed different parts of the playground and made his way to one of the six slides.

I'm so sad this is so blurry, but this is Roman enjoying one of the many slides.

As the night went on, more and more kids started to show up. My concern for what happened just the night before, when he was overwhelmed with the amount of kids, noise and complete chaos started to sink in.

I worried about how he would handle all the kids.

Socialization. Children need to learn how to work together. They need to learn to make friends, how to share and cooperate, how to treat other people. If they only interact in very structured settings, such as school or sports teams, they won’t — they can’t — learn everything they need to know. Source: Harvard Health Publishing

The Little Boy, The Blue Ball and The Toy Car...

As Roman was playing, a 4-year-old boy showed up holding a ball. That my friends, is my son's FAVORITE toy. He LOVES all things balls and cars.

Roman with his new truck and ball after a brief trip to Menard's.

So, immediately, Roman b-lined to the little boy, and tried grabbing the ball off of him. At first, the little boy didn't know how to react, but then warmed up to Roman. Roman. fixated on the ball. As the little boy tossed it around, he fell to the ground and rolled. Roman, the first to chase after it.

He grabbed it in his arms and started to take off. My husband and I intervened, and explained to Roman that he couldn't keep the ball because it wasn't his. After a brief protest, he gave it back. The little boy was so patient with Roman. He played with him, and in return Roman started to interact. We still had to intervene from time to time to make sure Roman returned the ball to its rightful owner.

He handled it better than we could have ever imagined, for a brief moment, it felt like progress.

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