Ava’s best friend is Mac, a boy who lives one yard (and not the 36″ kind) away from us and is about six months older than she is. When not at school, they spend a lot of time together. They have these great phone conversations when one or the other calls to check on availability for a play date; Ava always puts Mac on speakerphone. I’ve thought about getting the duo a pair of walkie talkies, but they use the phone so expertly, there doesn’t seem to be a point.
Mac is a gentle, polite, bright little boy with a passion for trains that borders on the obsessive (he prefers to be called “Mac Diesel,” and don’t bother talking to him about steam engines…they’re sooo 1810). He and Ava carry around their favorite “stuffies” and prop them up near where they’re playing so they can observe the action.
Next fall, Ava and Mac will attend the same school. I hope they’re still friends. I thought last night about what’s going to happen when Ava finds her first girl best friend, and how that will change her relationship with Mac. Or if it will. Before long, I’d fallen down the rabbit hole of fret over how Ava will handle the transition to junior high and high school. Whether she’ll be secure enough to handle those trials without being crushed, or at least dented, by them. I just hope she believes me when I tell her how awesome she is. I hope those words settle somewhere inside her and start to build up a tough shell that will protect her from doubt and uncertainty down the road. I have no way to know how realistic I’m being about all this, or whether I’m being realistic at all. Just let my little girl be all right, and let her always have friends like Mac.