Shayla and The Making of Friends

It's such a pleasure to watch my daughter Shayla (3 yrs. old) make those social connections with other kiddos. Since she's not quite yet in pre-school she really soaks up the experience whenever she's playing with her peers. We are planning on getting her into some sort of Montessori-based (hopefully) pre-school in the Fall, maybe sooner.
Last night we went to a local establishment called Ruta Maya which is primarily a coffee house. They also have music shows at night and on the weekends. The SXSWi Music, Film and Interactive Festival is going on here in Austin, Texas and last night Ruta Maya hosted a Reggae-themed evening. It was fun watching her dance around the dance floor with the three other kids she made friends with. I love these kid friendly environments:; it certainly makes it easier on us parents. We have many of these venues around Austin: it's another in the growing number of reasons why I love living here. She was playing really well with all these kids. They were all playing well with each other: a parents blessing. I did hear her ordering around a few of the other kids a little bit, which made me instinctively reflect on a couple of things: 1. Hhmmm. "Is this her?", or 2. "Did I teach her this? ...maybe?..?". Then I thought, 3. "Is there a way I can curb an ocassionally overbearing nature in my child?", and 4. "Should I try or would that be squashing her individuality?". Hey, I'm not voting for a bossy child, certainly not in my relationship with her, but I also realize that a lot of this may not really be In my Jurisdiction. Haha. Parents, of course, will get the drift in that one. It certainly doesn't take long before you realize that these little spirits come here with their own little plan in-hand.
We all had fun at Ruta last night, and we even made another potential friend contact for Shayla. Yay! Also, she was so well behaved last night, and we told her so and sung her praises several times on the way home.