My little socialite

When I picked Sofia up from school on Thursday I found a birthday invitation in her backpack.  I looked at the name and didn't recognize it.  I asked my friend if she knew the boy and I realized that I had met the mom at a previous birthday party.  Of course it didn't surprise me to find a birthday invite in Sofia's back pack because it is common use here to invite the whole class to your child's birthday party (30+ kids can you believe it!).  This is something that obviously won't be happening with Sofia's 4th bday! 

The idea of a birthday party to me is that you invite your friends, the ones that you do things with, the ones you play with, this particular little boy didn't even remember Sofia's name when we got to the party!  Of course this didn't bother Sofia one bit, she is 3 of course and they aren't bothered by things like that.  Sofia did her usual stood by mommy and observed the scene, which was fine by me because although we had shown up nearly 45 minutes late there still weren't many people there yet and I didn't recognize anyone but the mom of the boy.  (Yes, it is customary that birthday parties start around 5pm but nobody really shows up until around 6pm and of course the parents stay because there are no games or activities set up for the kids to do so it is kind of like recess with snacks on big long tables set off to the side.)  Of course this no longer surprises me anymore, not since my first experience with it as Sofia's first birthday!

The thing that did surprise me a bit was Sofia.   Although she was staying close to me she had told me that she had seen Giulia from school there but of course as usual was asking me to ask her if she wanted to play.  I said, go ahead and ask her she is your friend.  When the girl said she didn't want to play, I tried to get Sofia to go in to get some snacks while we waited for her dear friend Sara.  After about 10 minutes more kids had shown up and within no time she was off and running around.  Of course she wasn't really playing with anyone in particular because most of the kids were older than her.  But this is not what got me because she has done this before. It is what happened a few minutes later.  I was watching her and lost sight of her in the setting sun and then PANIC!  I couldn't see her anymore, I got up and started looking around for her trying not to look crazy because it had been literally 30 seconds, but then when I really started to worry I spotted her, sitting on a wall next to two older boys totally and completely content. 

This continued throughout the evening as more and more of the kids from her class arrived.  At one point she had her two good friends Sara and Martina with her.  She was leading them around by the hand telling them where they should go next and what they should do.  This, coming from a mamma's girl who three weeks ago could remember 3 words in Italian! 

Later on she was walking up to the older girls and putting herself right in the middle of the group as if to say so girls what are we doing now!?  I couldn't believe my eyes my little wallflower has been turned into a complete socialite, totally confident of herself!  I LOVE what preschool has done for her in just two short weeks!