how do you do?

Gwendolyn is one of the friendliest children I’ve met. She truly has a gift.

Today at church a friend shared this story with me about her granddaughter, Isabel, who was visiting and feeling rather shy. Apparently, Gwendolyn saw that Isabel was standing by herself against the wall waiting to enter a classroom and Gwendolyn went right up and stood next to her so she wouldn’t be alone. When Isabel came to class a little late, Gwendolyn got up and opened up and extra chair for her. And during closing exercises, Gwendolyn sat next to Isabel and reached over and held her hand at one point so she wouldn’t feel scared. It warms my heart to hear of Gwennie being so sweet and sensitive to the emotions of one of her peers. She really is a sweet girl.

Gwennie likes a little boy at church named David (and she’s extremely open about it, so I’m not breaking any confidences here). After church, as Todd was trying to wrangle children out of the building, Gwendolyn was talking to David’s mother who explained, “She’s just introducing herself to the mother of the boy she likes.”

Gwennie doesn’t consider David a friend because she doesn’t know him well enough, but she wants to get to know him (and even invited him “on a date to get ice cream”). This might prove challenging because as David explained to her, “If you talk to me, I’ll melt like a popcicle.”

She’s six and a half. Todd and I are not ready for crushes or even talk of dating (and we explained that she’s got ten years to go on that one), but she’s making plans and admitted that now she isn’t sure if she’s going to marry David or Thomas.

(And here she is posing with an early version of the scarecrow she decided to make for my garden.)