Every single day of Christmas Break, Nathaniel said he wanted to go to UMe. He kept asking if we could go. I kept telling him that I was happy to take him there but I wouldn’t play with him so was he ok playing by himself. Then he would ask David, who said no. Then he asked Jake, who didn’t want to say no but you could tell it pained him since Nathaniel often runs around like a crazy person and it’s really hard to play with him when he’s there. But he also doesn’t like to play alone.

So days passed and we never went.

Then, on the very last day of break, David decided he would go play with Nathaniel (anything to postpone having to do a bit of Algebra) so I took the boys and they ran around and played while I read my book. It was really fun to watch them play together even though it was pretty clear they were both too old to be there. Even Nathaniel. All the other kids there were in the 1-3 year old range.

But the boys didn’t seem to care. They ran around, they played, they were smiling the whole time. When I told them it was time to go home, they asked if they could build a fort before we left. I relented and they spent the next few minutes building a fort out of foam blocks. There was so much laughter, so much cooperative work, and so much fun that it made my day.

I was very glad to have made Nathaniel’s little wish come true and even more glad that David chose to share it with him.

Grateful for these two boys.

Stories from 2016 is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.