3 Playdates and a Dinner Party

Sadie has been at loose ends these past weeks/months since she's been catapulted into middle-child status in our family. We've tried to provide extra special opportunities for her. This morning she got to go to work with Daddy for an hour or so until I came to pick her up. This week she'll have had three playdates here at our house (two without her sister, who tends to dominate the social atmosphere). And for the most part, I think these things have helped her - a change of pace, a diversion from life with Momma and the brothers, and something special and independent from her sister.

But tonight, I found her in her room. Actually she was hiding under Ruby's bed, and she was chewing on the corner of her beloved baseball pillow. We were hosting a cook-out for our ministry team, and only about half the folks were able to come. Still, the 19 guests proved to be a little much for our soft-spoken LouLou. Joshua was strapped to my back (he, too, thought a house full of dinner guests wasn't a great idea) and when I got down on my hands and knees to coax Sadie Lou out from under the bed, he was openning and closing his fist and saying "LuuuuLuuu! Ka. LuuuLu. Ka!" his own little invitation for her to come join us.
Well, she struck a compromise: she agreed to come out and play with her friends, but first I needed to bring her plate of food into her room so she could happily eat, alone and in peace. Sounded like a good deal.

I love how God made each of my kids so different from each other.