Style and reading

It's been a little while, but Moses said to me that he thinks I should go shopping and buy some new clothes because mine are getting old and stained. I sometimes wonder where he gets it, and then I remember that so much of his family is artistic. Uncle David is even a fashion designer. Of course he notices things like this!

Moses started kindergarten a couple of weeks ago, and he is doing great. Ms. McMillon is so sweet and she told us how bright and eager Moses is. He gets along with everyone and always makes her laugh. She said she would encourage us to work on his letter sounds (that he only knows about 2/3 really well). I'm super impressed that she knows that, right? 

During parent night, she told us about how they will learn narrative style, opinion style, and instruction style writing this year. And that one of the goals is proper punctuation. And you know what I was thinking? Mind. Blown. My baby is going to know what "punctuation" means, and how to use it. 

I'd been wondering when it would click for him that when we read books together, the words we say are connected to the words he sees on the page. Well, i noticed him doing that tonight for the first time ever! It was pretty exciting! It's happening!! 

Little man

Driving with Justin Timberlake (deemed "cool" by little man) blasting and windows rolled down, by request. Fun! Haha 

Reading

Moses is slowly starting to read and its so exciting. He is also really delightful these days. He stayed up to watch fireworks with us tonight, and we even had real ones go off over our house (thank you across the street neighbors!).

he knows so much, but he's also still 4

"mommy, this car is a corvette (gesturing to one of his hot wheels)."

"oh yeah?" i responded, with a bit of doubt.

"yeah, mommy, see, it's got [tail] lights like a corvette," he answered me in a knowing/teacher-like way.

oh. my son's knowledge of cars has officially surpassed mine. haha :)

meanwhile, later that day, "mommy, my tummy hurt, and when i went poop, i had a diorama." hahaha

Night potty training

Moses is finally night time potty trained!! He had been struggling with wetting his bed / having to wear pull ups pretty much since Eden was born. So like a year and a half ago. OMG, had it really been that long? Well, I suppose it has, because we had our wet bed change down to a system! We had 3 sets of sheets/water proof mattress covers on his bed, and when he came to us with pee pee pjs, one person stripped off one set of sheets from his bed in the dark,  while the other changed the weepy son in the bathroom. Eden hardly ever woke up during these times, but when she did, she just went right back to bed. About three months ago, I started to wonder if waking him up to pee at midnight or so was making him pee his bed more. So we stopped, and voilà no more wet bed! Except for a couple of times from being sick, but I think we've finally made it to the promise land!! 

Love him. :) 

Forgiveness

I admit, I am hard on Moses. I expect a lot from him--he is so smart and he has so much EQ, and he can be so amazing! But with these high expectations, I am also often disproportionately disappointed by his 4-year old boy behavior. Disproportionate disappointment, combined with my exhaustion and general lack of margin, I realize I lose my cool a lot. Like, a whole lot, much more than I'd like to admit. So I apologize a lot. And my wonderful son forgives a lot. His forgiveness is so pure. So simple. Without strings or need for proof. He just forgives and affirms his neverending love for me. "I love you times infinity, Mommy!" 

I have so much to learn about forgiveness in my life. About how to receive it. How to offer it. How to fall into its freedom. About how to really love. And my 4-year old boy is teaching me all about it. 

What did your mom look like, Mommy?

Tonight, while snuggling quietly in Moses's bed, he asked me to tell him about my mom. I was describing her and telling him how very pretty she was, and he looked at me with wide eyes, "was she as pretty as you??" It was so sweet. 

He watched me talk about her, and When I got teary-eyed, he noticed and said, "are you sad mommy? Because she died?" I told him yes, I miss her very much. 

He listened intently and asked questions about her. He asked if she was smart. He asked me if she liked to do hair because she was so beautiful. He asked me if my dad has died. And then remembered happily that he had seen him on Monday. 

I wanted the time to never end. I finally tore myself away at 8:30. Too late for a four and a half year old to be going to bed, but not long enough for this momma to soak it all in. He is such a bright, caring, eager, fun little boy. I hope I get to see him grow old and wise. 

He was surprised to find out that he'll always be my son, even when he's a dad/grown up. Haha. I love that kid.