Two short stories:
Today each of the kids made a little stride forward in self- sufficiency. As soon as I in the door after work, Rose asked if she could call a friend to up a play date. I said sure, and helped her find the number but she did everything else herself; short of telling her the time they sorted out was ok. Then I asked the kids to deliver new year’s cards to a few of the neighbors, and they did. Rose sold a few girl scout cookies along the way, but Dillon used the opportunity to call on twin boys in his class that apparently live three houses down from us. We ran into the mom last week and she introduced herself to me. (Nothing like a strange adult recognizing your kid at a movie theater.) D had planned on delivering the card and asking for their phone number, but they asked him to stay and play. He walked his sister home and asked permission to go back, then called later to report he was invited to stay for dinner. So he leveled up a friendship with some boys in the new school without any parental help.
The second story I didn’t actually witness firsthand. Charles and D were riding in the car and stopped at a freeway entrance when a man standing there motioned for Charles to roll down the window. Charles did, and the man asked if they could spare some money. Charles didn’t have any cash, but gave the man a granola bar or some food he had in the car. And then he heard from the back seat, “Wait! I have some money!” And Dillon fished out of his pocket $5 that someone had given him for Christmas and gave it to the man.  It was completely unprompted, and I’m pretty proud of that. He’s a good kid. Someone told me that after teenagers are done being teenagers, they become adults similar to the personality they had at 12. I think we could do worse.