First Play Date

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Shy had her first play date at a friends house here on the Cape yesterday. It was really great and when I went to pick her up, she didn't want to come home as she was having a lot of fun.

Normally a play date would not be all that special, but in this case it was.

Shy does not like animals all that much. She has always been afraid of dogs and cats and bigger uncontrolled animals have always frightened her to the point of screeching and cowering in fright holding on to either DW or I until the threat of the animal is removed.

This little girl's family, who lives right around the corner, has quite the menagerie. There are 2 dogs. BIG DOGS!!, two cats, two horses, and a three year old brother.

The little girl had been telling Shy that she wanted her to come to her house, but Shy was never real interested because of the dogs. She always saw them at the bus stop and quite frankly they scared her to death. For some reason though the other little girl told Shy that if she just petted the dog she would see that it was fine and wouldn't bother her. I guess she must have made a good case and I would love to know what it was. Anyway, Monday when they got off the bus, Shy went right over to the dog, all by herself, and petted it.

Everyone made a big deal of it and decided that at some point, maybe a play date would be in order. Well, when they got off the bus yesterday, they wanted to have that play date. I suggested the other little girl come to our house, but she is a little younger then Shy and really didn't want to go alone. I double checked with Shy to make sure she was ok with it and she assured me she was fine with it, and wanted to go over to this little girl's house.

I had two concerns. One, the dogs, cats, horses and little borther. Two, the fact that Shy had very little to no experience at a friends house without Linda or I being there. I knew it was time to let this happen, so I told her to "be a good girl" and off they went.

I was half waiting for the phone to ring to tell me to come get her but it never rang. When I went to pick her up at the appointed time, she just didn't want to leave. She and her friend were having a great time! Apparently the smallest cat bothered her a bit, but no other part of the menagerie seemed to have much of an impact on her, and I am told she behaved wonderfully.

This is just another example of how fast Shy is growing up. She has made so much progress since coming here to the Cape. It seems as though every day, she says or does something that makes us proud. We are so lucky!!

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