Ellie has a BFF (that's Best Friend Forever for those of you not into ancient slang). Although, her BFF isn't actually
friend per se. Basically Ellie has a mild obsession with Myles, the boy (literally) next door. It makes perfect sense that Myles and Ellie would be friends. They were born only about three weeks apart, they live next door to each other (in row homes nonetheless) so they see each other all of the time, we get along really well with Myles' parents and the kids both envy each others' backyard toys. Of course they would become friends.
The thing of it is, for as much they are around each other and playing
near each other they don't really play
together. Now, you could use the "parallel play" argument, which is perfectly reasonable. Usually children play next to each other and not with each other for a long time (1-2 years). However, while Ellie did mostly parallel play with other kids, she has recently been much more interested in playing with other children and does actually interact and play with them now. She has actually taken her classmates by the hand and run around and played with them. I have seen this. But for whatever reason, Ellie and Myles are always just sort of playing in the vicinity of one another (preferably with the other kids' toys). Pretty much the only time they actually interact is when they are desiring the toy that the other one is playing with, pushing each other over or whining/crying about whose turn it is to play/ride/swing.
And yet, Ellie inquires "Where's Myles?" about 400 times a day. If she notices that he is outside (or his dog or his parents), she cries "Myles outside!" and runs to get her shoes while announcing that she plans to go outside to be with him, even if she's right in the middle of diner or she's in her pajamas (we really need to get some blinds for our windows so this will stop). When we walk past his house and he's not in the yard, it's "Where's Myles? What's Myles doing?" I swear, if she could put a lo-jack on this child, she would. She is always extremely interested in his whereabouts and wants to be near him as much as possible. And then in those exciting moments when the stars are aligned and they are actually together, they mostly ignore each other. Maybe the strange dynamics between males and females is already established at this age. I have no idea and have decided to stop trying to figure out their "friendship" and go with the flow. If they enjoy being near each other but not playing together, who am I to judge? Whatever floats your boat. And who knows, maybe one day they'll be true BFF's.
Ellie has a BFF (that's Best Friend Forever for those of you not into ancient slang). Although, her BFF isn't actually friend per se. Basically Ellie has a mild obsession with Myles, the boy (literally) next door. It makes perfect sense that Myles and Ellie would be friends. They were born only about three weeks apart, they live next door to each other (in row homes nonetheless) so they see each other all of the time, we get along really well with Myles' parents and the kids both envy each others' backyard toys. Of course they would become friends.
The thing of it is, for as much they are around each other and playing near each other they don't really play together. Now, you could use the "parallel play" argument, which is perfectly reasonable. Usually children play next to each other and not with each other for a long time (1-2 years). However, while Ellie did mostly parallel play with other kids, she has recently been much more interested in playing with other children and does actually interact and play with them now. She has actually taken her classmates by the hand and run around and played with them. I have seen this. But for whatever reason, Ellie and Myles are always just sort of playing in the vicinity of one another (preferably with the other kids' toys). Pretty much the only time they actually interact is when they are desiring the toy that the other one is playing with, pushing each other over or whining/crying about whose turn it is to play/ride/swing.
And yet, Ellie inquires "Where's Myles?" about 400 times a day. If she notices that he is outside (or his dog or his parents), she cries "Myles outside!" and runs to get her shoes while announcing that she plans to go outside to be with him, even if she's right in the middle of diner or she's in her pajamas (we really need to get some blinds for our windows so this will stop). When we walk past his house and he's not in the yard, it's "Where's Myles? What's Myles doing?" I swear, if she could put a lo-jack on this child, she would. She is always extremely interested in his whereabouts and wants to be near him as much as possible. And then in those exciting moments when the stars are aligned and they are actually together, they mostly ignore each other. Maybe the strange dynamics between males and females is already established at this age. I have no idea and have decided to stop trying to figure out their "friendship" and go with the flow. If they enjoy being near each other but not playing together, who am I to judge? Whatever floats your boat. And who knows, maybe one day they'll be true BFF's.
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