Friends

Elubody is my friend?
Mama, are you my friend?
Allen's my friend, mama?
Sashi is not my friend. Sashi and Erika don't like me.
I don't like Ms. Yvonne.
Mariposa is our friend.
Only birdies are my friends.
All my friends will come to my party.
The litlle white car had no friends so he had to go hone to play with mamma.

These are just a few of Ivan's proclamations of the last few weeks. They are very emphatically stated.

Apparently the idea of friendship and budding social awareness is big in three year-old's world. And allegiances who's his friend and who isn't vary from day to day. They are also often announced with no precedent.

At first, Andy and I were deeply concerned when he'd say that so and so from daycare is not his friend. This was before we realized the radnomness of such statements. Now we know he may or may not mean them. Or he probably does mean it but he just can't put into words exactly what he's feeling, so saying that someone is not his friend is his attempt of conveying more complex feelings.

"You're not my friend," he told Andy yesterday.

It must be the biggest, most powerful diss in the three year-old's world.

He also keeps insisting that Didi is not his friend. After some proding, he finally admited it's because Didi doesn't play with him. (Didi can't lift him until his stiches heal.)