Befuddlingly gregarious

Today Penelope befriended our neighbor's dog. This isn't really a rare occurrence. Lately she is into making friends with everyone and everything. A child riding her bike down the street. A sweet old man in the grocery store. The waitress at the greasy truck stop diner we patronized yesterday. Her stuffed animals. Her reflection in the mirror. All are subject to the same sweet - if not overly enthusiastic - "HIIIIII!"

Generally she gets a chuckle, or an obligatory "hi" back in her direction. But every time it happens, she expresses such genuine delight in having made a new connection.

The other day, she took a break from making fish faces at the aquarium in the pediatricians' waiting room to engage in a spontaneous kiss-blowing session with another baby. It lasted for a solid five minutes.

At first I used to worry about teaching her to not bother other people and (more importantly) to be safe with strangers. But today, as I watched her chubby fingers flex back and forth in her awkward baby wave at our neighbor's pug, I didn't want any of that.

I guess the world will teach her soon enough to distrust. Right now I like that she is teaching me how to assume there is a friend in everyone.



(unrelated photo of this social butterfly earlier today. Has anyone ever had success with these strawberry planters? Things aren't looking very good so far...)