Up until he hit school age, Jaden played with girls more than he played with boys. That was mostly due to an utter lack of pre-school boys in the neighborhood at the time. That's changed and now he has a number of "male" friends to play with now.
Today, I took Gracie, Jaden, and his friend Hannah off to the indoor play place I usually take the kids on a weekend. On the way there, Jaden was playing his GameBoy--something I generally forbid him from doing when company is with us--and she was watching and making comments, and so on. They were having a grand old time back there, as was the case most of the time they were together today that I noticed.
Jaden seems to be, well, a little different around Hannah. Jaden generally considers himself "in charge" a heck of a lot. This causes some issues with his peers and it gets interesting when he tries to do that with us, which is often. However, he is perfectly happy not being in charge around Hannah. In fact, he seems to be different around her. And it's not just today, there have been some incidents at school that suggest that he really likes her.
Of course, maybe I'm just projecting something on him that isn't there. However, I can't help but think back to my first crush, which occurred in first grade also. I believe the girl's name was Jenny, but it's been so long ago, I could be wrong. A redhead with lots of freckles, I know that much is true. I always tried to get her to sit next to me in the bus. I don't think it turned into anything, of course, but I remember how she lit up my day--in much the same way that I saw in Jaden today.
Ah, how I long for those simple, carefree days.
