A New Friend

Friends have always been very important to Jonah.  They fuel his spirited soul.  When he finds a friend that he connects with, he loves him with all of his heart.

Jonah delights in figuring out what his friends enjoy and then finding ways to give them that thing.  For example, if he knows you love Spiderman, he'll pick out Spiderman stickers at the doctor's office just so he can give them to you the next time he sees you. When you come over, he'll give you one of his Spiderman toys as a gift for you to take home.  He'll even start watching Spectacular Spiderman just so he can know all the characters when you guys play "pretend Spiderman" together.  

If it were up to him, he'd have a friend over every single day (or he'd go to a friend's house everyday).  He is constantly begging us (and the parents of his friends) if he can have a play date.   He's content to play anything under the sun as long as he's with his buddies.

Recently, he started asking for play dates with some of the boys from his class - something that we hadn't done yet.  The first attempt failed.  We gave one of his friends our phone number and told his mom to call us over Spring Break if she wanted to get the boys together.  She never called (lost the number).  Bummer.  Poor Jonah waited for that phone to ring all week.

On his second attempt, Jonah set-up a play date at a park after-school with another boy named Omar.  His mom and I confirmed that the date worked for both of us and that time, the attempt resulted in success!  The boys had so much fun playing together and I had a terrific time getting to know Omar's mom.

About a week later, Omar and his mom came to Jonah's t-ball game to watch him play!  This was the t-ball highlight of the year for Jonah.

Last week, Omar came home from school with us to play for a few hours.  Jonah was beside himself as he prepared for the big day.  He cleaned his room (this never happens) and made "Welcome Omar" signs for our front door and for the door to his room.  He even picked out a Star Wars toy from the toy closet (Omar's fave), wrapped it up all by himself, and had it ready for Omar to open when he arrived.

Later this week, Jonah is going to Omar's house to play over there for the first time.  HE IS SO EXCITED.  And I'm so excited that he has a new friend at school.  This looks like the start of a special friendship!  

Jonah and his new buddy, Omar, at a school assembly (fittingly, right before Jonah received a Caring Award).    

Omar (second in line) and Jonah (last in line) playing in the Kickball Jamboree at school.