I'm that kid in the corner

I'm a day late on getting my happiness post from the weekend up.  Sorry about that.  This weekend's post actually covers an event that happened last weekend.  Last Saturday, one of my colleagues invited over everyone in AU's school of science and engineering over to his house as a way to welcome in the new engineering faculty.  Lindsey and I were one of the first ones to get there so we got to see when everyone else showed up.  A short time later, one of my fellow math colleagues shows up with his three year old daughter, who we'll call A.  There's a handful of other young(ish) children there and A isn't usually shy so she originally goes off to play with them on the trampoline.  She wants to get in with them, but since most of them are significantly older (other kids were 5-13), she's intimidated and actually heads off a little ways and kinda sulks a little bit because she's got a decent amount of attitude for a three year old girl.  I notice this and a couple of minutes later, I excuse myself from talking with my fellow professors and go talk to A.  I ask her if she wants to go jump on the trampoline with me since the other kids are still on it.  I figure I know what its like to be the kid that's off to the side and wants to get involved but would prefer it to happen on the terms I like so I'm going to watch out for other kids in the same situation.  This isn't to say anything bad about the other kids because they were all really friendly, but I think A just wanted someone there whom she knew to make it not so overwhelming.  So yeah, that's me - protector of little kids that I know well.  I still hate strangers kids when they're loud and annoying in public but I'm actually quite good with kids I know.  We ended up playing some form of Duck, Duck, Goose that didn't really follow the rules at all, but a good time was had so everyone was happy.  There's actually a pretty awesome picture of me and A playing but I don't think that's going to be put out on social media.  Sorry everyone.