Luca

Luca is K's best buddy at pre-school.

I don't know exactly when they became friends but I started hearing his name about 4 or 5 mos. ago.  K can't pronounce hard c's yet so he would tell me stories about "his friend lola" and as his speech developed a bit more, his friend "loha".

The first time I dropped K off I didn't have to ask who Luca was.  K's eyes lit up when he spotted Luca and they both squealed with delight.  Then they started chasing each other around the parking lot.    The teachers told us that K always saved a seat for Luca at the activity table.  When I picked K up, he and Luca gave each other good-bye hugs and kisses. It was so cute to see how kind and thoughtful they were to one another.

Luca's mom Amanda is super sweet and would often invite K and J to their home after school to play.  After a while, the boys just came to expect it (which made it hard on the days when that wasn't an option).

Sadly K had to say good-bye to Luca on Friday.  Luca and his family are moving to Madrid.  Luca gave K one of his toys - a pointing stick - and K gave Luca one of his cars.  I'm sad for K.  He asked me this morning if we could go with 'loha' on the plane.  Sure there will be new friends, but Luca will always hold a special place in our heart has K's first real friend.
 
This experience reminded me of a great piece I read a month or so ago about life as an expat and how while people come in and out of your lives frequently, the experiences tend to be intense ones.  The basic gist was that when you're only planning to be in a place for a couple of years, with friendships there isn't much time for a dating phase.  I like you.  You like me.  Let's hang out.  Here we are experiencing it first hand and it comes with such mixed emotions - feeling so blessed to have met Luca and his family as they have had a real impact on us in a very short period of time and then the sadness of seeing them leave the area.  All I can think to do right now is to plan a visit to Madrid next year.