Kai's new friend

Took Kai to Lily Park, a neighborhood no-dogs-allowed park near Eric
and Jenney's, this afternoon. Shortly after Kai got on the swing, a
little boy and his mom arrived. "I wanna go reeeeeeeaally high,
Mommy," the little boy said. Kai "ah"ed at him and turned almost
completely sideways so he could keep looking at him.

Then two more kids came to the park, and that little boy went to play
with them farther down the playground. Kai rode on a horsie after the
swing and was fascinated by the sandbox. He spent the first few
minutes carefully touching and feeling the sand. Then he grabbed a
handful and watched as it slipped through his fingers. He was
surprised at how hot the sand was when he crawled out of the shady
area. He even tried to eat it, but of course I stopped him from
shoving the handful of sand into his mouth.

Then the little boy came over and put his ambulance in front of Kai.
"It's broken. See?" he said as he pressed all the buttons on the
ambulance. "What can his fire truck do?"

"Don't worry, little buddy. Help is on the way!!" "Where's the fire?"
I pressed the red light on the top of the fire truck.

The boy, 4-year-old Thomas, took the truck and was "driving" it away,
and Kai panicked! He kept "ah"ing and was crawling toward Thomas. When
Kai put his hands on Thomas' shoulder, Thomas pretended to have fallen
and laid down on the sand, giggling. Kai froze with his hands in the
air and, a couple of seconds later, he chuckled as he realized Thomas
was playing WITH him. This was the first time an older kid (who's not
related to Kai) played with him, and Kai was sooooo happy and
excited!! Besides cars, Thomas also brought over his sandbox tools and
gave Kai the claw rake. The two of them played next to one another.
While Thomas told me stories about his life, Kai was also "talking" as
if he understood and was responding to what Thomas had said.

They spent almost an hour in the sandbox together.

When it was time to go home, Thomas gathered his toys and gave them to
his mom. Then he ran back to us and said, "Thank you for playing with
me. Last time I was at the park near (some place I don't know), the
kid didn't play with me 'cause.... um... 'cause he said I was a...
um.... stranger." I looked at his mom to make sure I heard right.
"Yeah," his mom chuckled, "and he's 4 years old! How dangerous can he
be?" What kind of world do we live in?

Kai's first sandbox experience was a huge success! He made a new
friend, and he eventually got to taste a bit of sand. He got messy and
dirty. He played.