The Loneliest Year

 We've had Matt here with us for about 3 weeks while he's started his new job and is looking for a house, and Evie is loving it.  Last night she introduced him to one of her favorite activities: making scavenger hunts.  She writes down clues on post-its and hides them around the house under or near target objects.  Evie had such a good time watching Matt trying to complete her challenge. 

I'm sad to say that Evie told me on Sunday night how much she didn't want to go to school and how this year has been her loneliest year yet.  A girl that she thought was a good friend has started to seem to prefer to hang with another girl that Evie doesn't care for, so she feels a bit abandoned in that.  She's got a couple of other friends in her class, but no one very close, more just playmates than real friends.  I am hoping that will change for her next year when she's in middle school with a variety of classmates and not the same group all day.  She's not unpopular, most everyone likes her, but she doesn't go in for all the foolishness of elementary school friendships - you know, that sort of on again/off again stuff, where kids decide they like you one day and not the next and then back again the one after that.  She makes deep friendships and so she feels betrayed by kids who don't do the same.

This morning they had "Donuts with Grown-ups" at school and I sat with her.  We saw Allyson (Evie's friend from 1st grade) come in with her mom and sisters and I suggested to Evie that we wave for them to come and sit with us.  Evie declined and said she [Evie] just isn't a friendly person who goes up and talks to people.  I told her I didn't think that was true, because she used to do that all the time.  She said, "The pandemic changed me, Mama, you just have to accept that."  So I let her finish her donut and then I convinced her that we should go over to the table where Allyson was sitting, and she agreed.  We had a good chat and then Evie and Allyson had to go off to safety patrol.  

It was good to see them chatting again.  They have been good friends for a long time and that kind of dropped off when they went through the pandemic, but so did everything.  I'm hoping she'll feel more emboldened to go up to her friends and start conversations.  Maybe it's just this age, or maybe she really did lose some of that initiation during the pandemic.

Anyway, after they left for safety patrol, I stayed and chatted with Allyson's mom, and then went out to my car.  I saw Evie on the way, opening car doors, as was her job this morning.  She's awfully cute doing it.

We had a cold snap this morning and couldn't find Evie's gloves so she's wearing her cat feet socks to improvise