I wish we could skip this part

This afternoon, I took Elizabeth to a birthday party for a girl in her preschool class. She was so excited about the party that she literally asked about it at least once every 5 minutes from 7am until 1:30pm - the time we had to leave the house for the party. (It was a loooooong morning!)

The party was held in a gymnastics center, with tons of things to play with and do. It was quite an experience! Elizabeth had a fantastic time, and managed to wear herself out so much that she even took a nap this afternoon.

But, I noticed that Elizabeth was just playing by herself most of the time. Now, of course, most of that is because she's still not very adventurous and a lot of the other kids were rough and tumble, so she seemed to feel safer playing away from them. But, when I asked her if she wanted to go play with a little girl that was in her preschool class, she got a sad look on her face and told me, "She doesn't like me very much. I like her, but she doesn't like me."

With those words, all of a sudden, the horrible, painful memories of my own childhood social situations came rushing back to me, and it just broke my heart. I guess I always assumed Elizabeth would be the most popular, sought-after girl around. I mean, how on earth could anyone not like my sweet little girl? Don't they see how absolutely precious she is? Or maybe I just hoped that she would not be shy and ill at ease around other children like I was. I guess I was forgetting that she really is my mini-me - in more than just looks. Ugh! How is it that this awful social stuff can start when she's only 3 years old? They're too young for this!

Now that I'm grown, I realize that those popular little twits aren't important. Inside, they're just as insecure as everyone else. There are lots of other nice little girls that will love to have my nice little girl as a friend. She shouldn't even think twice about it - it's their loss, not hers. But, I wonder if I'll be able to convince her of that. After all, I remember my own mother saying those very same things to me...and I never quite believed her. At least, not until I was over the age of 20 or so... I pray that Elizabeth will be a quicker social learner than I was.