A social butterfly

My son is such a little social butterfly. He's not usually afraid of other people. He will go to almost anyone. And he thinks that everyone will automatically love him.

At church on Sunday he wanted to visit everyone around us. We were sitting on an aisle (for quick toddler problem escapes) and he wanted to go see the man in front of us. This is someone we know, and he knows Zachariah so it wasn't a problem. He has grandkids and loves children. So, Zachariah went up with him and sat for a little bit. Then he came walking back to me. The whole time I was on the edge of my seat waiting to grab him, because I didn't know when he might just dart off across the sanctuary. After sitting with me for a while, he decided he'd like to go see the man in front of us again. As he was heading back to me he heard a baby fussing and stopped to try to figure out where it was coming from. Luckily it was coming behind me (from Eli actually), so he didn't run off. But he did peek back at Sarah to figure out what was going on. (The kid loves babies, so we're probably lucky he didn't crawl up in Sarah's lap to touch Eli's head.) At that point I knew it was time to take him to the nursery.

I think if I'd let him, he would just wander the sanctuary during the whole church service finding people to "play" with. He would crawl up on anyone's lap who looked inviting and would smile at him. He would smile at people, laugh when they laughed, and climb all over the pews. I can just see it now. And that would make him happy.

He is like this everywhere I go. He will befriend anyone. I'm interested in seeing where this quality leads him in life. He seems to be a sensitive soul too. I could see him being like I was in school. I could make friends with anyone. In fact I usually made friends with everyone. Sure, I had my group of friends, but I could hang out with almost everyone else too. I always had compassion for the person without any friends who always ended up on their own in the dark corner. Especially when I was in elementary school, I remember trying to include these people. My youngest sister always went one step farther and made these people her close friends. I was always pleasant to them, but I remained loyal to my friend. When around adults I always felt comfortable. I could carry on conversations and feel like I fit in better with them than the younger kids most of the time. (Could this be part of being an oldest child?) This explains why a person we went to church with thought I was a senior in high school when I was really just finishing 8th grade. I was completely flattered, as you might imagine.

So, will my son be like me? I don't know. But it's so funny for now to watch him interact with people. He's happy in a room of strangers (if I'm there too). He'll have them all wrapped around his fingers before the night is over.