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[Thread] Since we moved to this house in Feb, Macsen (turned 3 last week) has hit it off with our 78 year old neighbour, Pat. It started with her poking her finger through a hole in the fence, telling him it was a worm. Then she started gifting him gnomes from her fairy garden.
Then she started buying him treats when she did her food shopping - chocolate buttons and jelly babies etc. As lockdown hit, they’d spend hours talking over the fence. Macsen would go into the garden and shout “PAAAAT!” and she’d come out and keep him company.
This became a regular occurrence and an absolute God send whilst we tried to juggle working from home and entertaining a then two year old. She gave him some gardening tools and they did socially distanced gardening together (him in ours, her in hers).
As lockdown eased, she started taking him into her house (we formed a bubble) and letting him play with her old treasures. Every time he came home, he brought something ‘new’ with him - she’d let him bring home a teddy, or some coloured glass ‘magic’ stones.
He now says “Pat is my best friend” and often asks for her when he’s tired or grumpy. I offer him trips to the park or to take him out on his bike and he says “no thank you, I want to see Pat”
He walks into her house like he owns it. He takes his shoes off and lines them up next to hers, then runs to the cupboard where Pat keeps her ‘treasures’. She always makes sure there’s a treat in there waiting for him.
Our childminder is on holiday for a fortnight. Pat asked if she could take him out for the day to play at her great-granddaughters’ house. So that’s where he is today. Our 3 year old and his 78 year old best friend 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💕" title="Zwei Herzen" aria-label="Emoji: Zwei Herzen"> this is him with his gnome collection (cheers, Pat https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😂" title="Gesicht mit Freudentränen" aria-label="Emoji: Gesicht mit Freudentränen">)
this is him with his gnome collection (cheers, Pat https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😂" title="Gesicht mit Freudentränen" aria-label="Emoji: Gesicht mit Freudentränen">)" title="Our childminder is on holiday for a fortnight. Pat asked if she could take him out for the day to play at her great-granddaughters’ house. So that’s where he is today. Our 3 year old and his 78 year old best friend https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💕" title="Zwei Herzen" aria-label="Emoji: Zwei Herzen"> this is him with his gnome collection (cheers, Pat https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😂" title="Gesicht mit Freudentränen" aria-label="Emoji: Gesicht mit Freudentränen">)" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>
*Update* they went out at 9.30am this morning and got home at 4pm. Macsen says he’s going to live with Pat. I bet Pat is knackered!
Also, Pat is such a great ally https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🏳️🌈" title="Regenbogen-Flagge" aria-label="Emoji: Regenbogen-Flagge"> we didn’t have to ‘come out’ to her, she just accepted that Macsen has two mums, and she always gets our “mummy” and “mama” names right. Something I’ll never take for granted. Don’t tell me older people can’t be accepting https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💕" title="Zwei Herzen" aria-label="Emoji: Zwei Herzen">
*Pat Update* we took her to the beach - she can’t remember the last time she went. Here’s Macsen and Pat chilling #besties
