Playing with Nathan

Today we went swimming with Nathan at his neighborhood pool. She is like a crazy little fish in that water. She started playing a swimming game where she stood on the step and jumped off to swim to me. Then she wriggled around to face the steps, and pushed off me to "swim" back to the steps. She just went back and forth, back and forth between me and the steps for a long time. I sat her on the side of the pool, and she kept jumping off into the water. The other parents at the pool were dumbfounded.

When we got out and dried off, she and Nathan started playing "chase". She screamed, and got behind Nathan, with her little arms out, sort of like a zombie. She was wiggling her hands, just barely brushing him, trying to get him to run from her so she could chase him. But she was very careful not to actually "catch" him. She just wanted to chase. Then, they began playing peekaboo behind and around a pool chair.

All the books say that children their age will engage in "parallel" play - that is, the kids play side by side, but do not engage with each other. It was clear Sophie and Nathan were engaged!