Couple of GM's

I've had a few GM's lately; I thought these two were worth posting.

#1) I was in Office Depot on a Saturday morning. As I was leaving, a family was walking in. Mother, Father, young teen boy, girl (about 7). The girl was trailing behind a couple of steps, so it was easy to give her a smile without the rest of the family noticing. She gave me a big smile back. And she kept smiling and maintaining eye contact even after she was several feet past me. I had stopped and turned around; she was looking over her shoulder smiling at me. Which poses the question: when does a friendly smile become the start of flirting?

#2) At the rec center pool yesterday. I had seen a young girl playing with a friend, and then the friend left. When I got in the pool, she was playing by herself with some rings; tossing them and retrieving them from the bottom of the pool. Every once in a while, she'd swim by me and smile. That led to her challengeing my to get one of the rings away from her. Of course she won. Then she swam away, and I thought she was going to play with someone else. Instead she stopped about ten feet away, and said "Well, aren't you going to chase me?" Be still my heart!! For the next hour or so, I would catch her, and she would squirm or jump or do whatever she had to do to get away. Then I'd have to catch her again, and the cycle starts all over. We had a blast together. After about an hour of this, I saw her mother come over to the side of the pool. The girl didn't see her, so I pointed up at the mother. They were leaving. But get this- the mother DIDN'T FREAK OUT! She didn't run to the nearest pay phone and dial 911. She must have seen us playing together, since we were making no effort to hide. I do hope I have another opportunity to see and play with her again.

Small boy moment: I recently finished a trip driving from one coast to the other, solo. I spent a lot of nights in motels, most with indoor pools. At one particular one, I was joined by a family of two boys and girl. I didn't have much interaction with any of them until the smaqller boy (about 7) decided he was shark and was going to eat me up. He caught me several times before they left for the evening. The next morning, I saw him and his mother at the continental breakfast. I said to him "I didn't know they served shark food here!" He gave the biggest smile I've seen in a while. And I got a smile from his mother, as well. I know that all of you know the high you get when you've made a girl or boy happy. It was a great start to the day.