My Little Social Butterfly

My mom's a realtor.
I'm in business development.
We're social people.

It should come as no surprise that Ada is a VERY friendly child.

It's not just kids in the parks that she instantly befriends. Those actually take a little bit more time.

It's adults. A man eating along in a local Mediterranean restaurant soon finds Ada helping him review the menu while suggesting dinner entrees. Another set of local restaurant patrons are convinced that Ada is so parched she can't make it a block home with me. They offer her a drink of water from the orange glass, and then the green glass, and then the orange glass again. After five minutes of this game, I'm tired of holding my take-out bag and call it quits. But that doesn't help since she befriends someone outside on the sidewalk. Then we see two people we know on the way home and when I finally turn the keys in the front door, my food is cold.

The other day we went to grab a few things at CVS and stop by to see Kelly from upstairs since she's the pharmacy manager at the store down the street. We're standing in the aisles of CVS when Ada starts starring at a man shopping for shaving products. She starts walking back and forth in front of him just daring him to look at her. After about two minutes, he finally breaks down and makes eye contact. Then she does her little Happy Feet dance and starts waving her arms up and down out of sheer joy. A way to say, "Look Mom, another friend!" We made friends with another three patrons before checking out of CVS that day.

And just last week was the biggie. While walking with Ada to run some errands, we first saw one of the street cleaners tightening his belt in a store doorway as we walked by. Ada stopped me and went over to shake his hand and smile. He played along and smiled back. Then it was someone in front of Alison's apartment, a nice man with a rescue dog. Ada was nice to the dog and we had a little conversation with the man. Then we stopped at the drycleaner where she made her own little dance party to the entertainment of all the employees and patrons alike. Then it was off to Express for a sale. She somehow convinced our sales assistant to pick her up and give her a hug. Then she got the three Asian ladies in the store to coo over her and dance with her and pat her cheeks. Then we went up to another store and she got those ladies talking to her. When we exited the elevator our Asian friends were passing by and stopped for another tickle and a smile. And then it was back home for a nap. All that socializing is exhausting. Now she must know how a politician feels. And that was all before noon.

Some kids are shy. They couldn't be any farther on the social scale than from Ada. I don't have to worry about her fitting in anywhere, but I do have to worry about her with strangers since she makes everybody her best friend.

Moral of the story: If you want to get something done quickly, shy kids might be a blessing. If you have an Ada, just be sure to allow for more social time as you go to get things done.