Monday, August 20, 2012

Definitely an Extrovert

Today has been a little too quiet.

For the past month, we have had a constant stream of guests come in and out of our house. First, my niece and nephew, MaKenna and Miles, came from Portland to stay for a few days. Their visit was followed by the arrival of the entire Robbins family. 28 people, 15 being children (including 4 babies), stayed under one roof for five days.
And just this past week, Hayden and Ellie, another niece and nephew, visited for several days. After they left yesterday afternoon, the house felt strangely empty. Eliza loves playing with her cousins, so she has been in heaven this month. Now, she is back to being the oldest child in the house and definitely missing her playmates.

I'm amazed at how sociable and extroverted our daughter is. She comes to life when she is around other children and cannot wait to be part of the fun. She laughs louder, runs around with a constant smile on her face, and even tells jokes. She loves watching her big cousins, and I hear her picking up new words and phrases like, "Totally" and "I'm gonna freak out!" (wasn't too happy about that one!)

I love that she is our performer. She wants to be the life of the party and around as much energy as possible. If I want a happy little girl on our hands, I need to schedule as many play dates as possible. She was in a horrible mood this morning until our friends, Natalie and her two sons, came over to jump on the trampoline. It changed the entire feeling of the day. Eliza had a playmate again and was happy. I guess Nathan and I aren't cool enough to entertain her these days; she knows all of our best tricks!
Eliza's extroversion means I cannot be a slacker when it comes to making friends in Portland. I am going to have to step it up and start planning play dates with moms in the neighborhood.

I'm an extrovert, too, so why does the idea of making new friends seem so daunting? Maybe because making friends as an adult is a million times harder than making friends as a child.

(Thanks for the great photos, Brittany!)

3 comments:

  1. Why does Brandon make that same "I'm gonna kill you" face and stance in every picture?! I had to tell him to stop when I took pictures of the boys. Also, I guess I really shouldn't have been to picky about the side I was sitting on because I still look like a huge hippo. Gah! Losing weight encouragement right there.

    I love having another little ESFP around. :) She's so fun and smart. If Anna ends up being like her I will be happy.

    Also, making new friends is one of my biggest struggles. I'm still trying. I think as an adult we are trying to find people that have the same life experiences and things in common with because we feel connected that way. Kids are easier. They don't have enough life experience to go off of. All they care about is if you also want to have fun.

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  2. That's a great family picture. And SUCH a sweet picture of Eliza too. You definitely have to join a mommy group in Portland. Have you looked on meetup.com yet? There are tons of groups in each big city. Today we went to a play date for my group where a mom read "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" to the kids, then she gave each kid a little pancake in the shape of the letter their name starts with (!) and then they had a dance party and played in a giant bubble table. (Stuff the pig does in the book...kind of). Anyway, it has been the most fun ever, and such a big part of Noah learning to socialize, share, take turns, etc. Eliza would love all the interaction, and you'd get too meet some other moms. They usually have a Mothers of Multiples group in most cities too, I think..

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  3. That photo of Eliza is beyond gorgeous!

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