Cam has many friends, but they are all kids of friends and neighbors. In fact, if you ask him who his friends are, he says “I have 2 friends, Kaya and Morgan. I only have 2 friends, I was just born that way.”

Kaya is our neighbor across the street (she also goes to the same preschool) and Morgan is our friends’ daughter, the one who is just 8 days older than Cam. So, as far as close friends go, those are the ones he gets to play with often and that I think he feels completely comfortable with.

Cam and Morgan playing dress-up. Note the sparkly shoes!

Cam has been going to preschool for about 8 months now and it hasn’t been easy for him. While he does great in school (his progress report confirms this and his teachers say he’s doing a good job), he still has a very hard time getting excited about school days. He cries or at least whines every school morning and has to be coaxed and urged and bribed to get ready, out the door and into school. It’s tough on us too. Well, let’s be real, mostly Joe. I don’t even witness it most days. But that’s why we’ve been so eager for him to make friends.

Every couple weeks we ask who he played with and who is friends are at school and he always answers that his best friend is Mrs. Karla. Mrs. Karla is the Director and while she’s very sweet, we’ve been waiting for the day he names a classmate.

And it happened!!! Finally!

Last night after stories and before falling asleep, we were talking about his week and I said, “I’m so glad you had a good week at school and now it’s the weekend so you won’t go back for 4 days.”

He replied, “Aww, but I’ll miss River!”

I wanted to shriek and hug him, but I had to play it cool. I said, “Oh, is River a nice person?”

And he said, “Yes, she’s nice and sometimes we play together, but sometimes people are already sitting next to her and she’s blocked. I can’t sit next to her.”

This was the second mention of River this week, so we know she’s real, but I guess we’ll have to wait to find out who this person is and if the friendship is mutual.

I’m hoping hoping hoping that this helps him get into a better place on school days. I’m also hoping River’s a cool girl and she doesn’t crush my little guy’s heart. Because if she does, I’ll have some words to share.

In the meantime, I’ll keep working on his idea of friends and that he can make new friends anytime he wants. I’ve been trying to explain to him what an ‘open mind’ is… I think he kind of gets it. We’ll see.