proud mama is proud

On Monday, G and I returned to the playground where he was bullied last week.

A group of kids were already playing there, most of them at least a few years older than him. They seemed to know each other, as did their moms, so I wondered if they were all brothers or cousins. As soon as G approached, one of them came near, asking if G wanted to be his superhero side-kick. It was cute, but G is way too young to have any idea what that means. When G ran off to play, the kid followed, making pew-pew gun noises.

Of course, it freaked G out. The kid was loud and jumping around G, and my poor child had no idea why another kid was targeting him. G, almost crying, ran over to me and clung to my leg. I bent down, trying to explain that the other kid was being nice and only wanted to play. When the other kid persisted, though, I told him that G was too little.

It didn't really help that a few minutes later, one of the oldest of the group accidentally knocked G over. Once he calmed down from crying, he was on high alert.  One of the group pushed a hand into his chest, saying, "Tag, you're it!" G was having none of it. I finally just told all of them in the nicest way possible to bug off and leave G alone. One of them even asked me, "What's wrong with him?" as though it's G's fault that he hasn't had the best experiences with older kids.

But after a while, G had had enough. When three of the kids came over to him, trying to see if he wanted to play, he yelled, "NO!" G doesn't say no very often, only when he means it. Usually it's said in a way that's joking, like "ooooh, noooo." The boys backed off after that, and we didn't have anymore problems.

I was so proud of G. I swear I felt my mama heart swell with pride. He didn't want to play with the other kids, and he told them the best way he could with his limited vocabulary. I can't wait to tell his speech therapist on Friday what he did. Using a word for actual communication is a huge step forward for G. He didn't have to stomp his feet, push his way through, grunt, act angry. He just said, "NO," and that was that!