C's preschool was on vacation last week, so we were thankful for the truly excellent weather that let us spend much of the week outside. One of his classmates invited us to a cookout on Wednesday, and we walked over to check it out. (We make a effort to attend all the parties/ gatherings that his friends invite us to because we theorize that spending more time with kids in different social situations will help him make friends.) The host family has four kids, and their yard included paved space for bikes/ scooters, an enormous trampoline, a fancy swingset, etc. Several of C's friends were there with their parents. We were there for an hour or two, and C spoke to probably two people (if you include the time he told Max to get off his bike because C wanted to ride it). But we realized that we weren't really the best models of social behavior, because neither Dan nor I could come up with anything to talk to the other parents about, either. Small talk is apparently not our thing, and I was truly at a loss. After a completely inane conversation with Bella's mom (How old is your son? He's going to be really running soon! You have your hands full, don't you?), I wondered what we were trying to do- we clearly are not able to connect with these folks at anything other than a superficial level, so why do I expect C to? I suppose that we want him to be better at it than we are....