Swing Kids

I'll let our readers decide if this activity indicates a future of sewing, performing vascular surgery, or if we're really just reading too much into it:


Zachary has long engaged in what I had thought was called parallel play, but according to Wikipedia (the source for all that is true and verifiable in the world), is actually more like solitary play. That is, even if there are multiple kids in the room, they're all pretty much playing by themselves. The parallel aspect I guess is that they occasionally do notice what the other kids are doing, which can sometimes lead to the other kids' toys looking more fun and getting taken. (Zachary has actually always been great about that, rarely taking a toy, and generally just moving on to another toy without getting particularly bothered if a toy is taken from him.) He's also engaged in parallel play with us for quite some time, asking for lego help, playing piano with us, and bringing us his moo-ing cow puppet to 'play' for him. More recently, he's figured out how to make it moo himself, and (equally impressive to me) he will make it moo in the correct rhyhtm for the various songs it cycles between!

Anyway, this is a really roundabout way to talking about yesterday, where we had an early glimpse at cooperative ('associative' per Wikipedia) play. After some successful shopping errands, we stopped at the train park on the way home. Zachary was again insistent on staying on the sidewalks until I pointed out the swings, at which point he made a beeline for them, disregarding the lack of a paved path in their direction. Silly man.

Anyway, a few minutes into swinging time, a little girl and her dad came over and she got in the adjacent swing, facing the opposite direction. The two of them proceeded to smile, laugh, and even occasionally pseudo talk to each other as they crossed paths. Zachary kept calling her "ba-ba" (baby) even though she was about his age, and he thought it was particularly funny when they ended up swinging in synchronization in opposite directions. It was very cute to see!

Quick footnote: We get a weekly e-mail about some typical developmental milestones, and it's often spookily on target. Sure enough, this week's talked about the beginnings of shared play.