playing with the big kids

Today was our last day at the daycare where I've been covering mornings once a week. there were three 3-year-olds, and Amelia. At one point, two of the children were drawing with those scented felt pens from crayola, and the little girl had me smell it. Then we all started smelling these stinky pens and going "peugh" and wrinkling our noses. I would let Amelia smell too, then the other children also very carefully let her smell (no-one got pen on their nose during this game!). Amelia started to wrinkle her nose too and make little noises trying to imitate us. What was so neat to see was the expression on her face as she had her turn and the others had their turns. To my eyes it was like the expression a child would have when playing with older children and the older children don't mind and just accept the younger one into their play. But I just realized that Amelia is too little to have that feeling (she's never been excluded or noticed that she wasn't playing with the others) and what she was so pleased about was just the experience of playing with other children for the first time.