Proud

Just a few more weeks...

This came in the mail yesterday.  Jack's been anxiously awaiting it.  It was fun to see him be so excited about it, but it made it all very real for me.  In just a few short weeks he's off to kindergarten.  I'm so very excited for him and am looking forward to watching him grow and learn in so many new ways.  There's still a teeny tiny piece of me that is apprehensive, just because no one there knows my sweet Jack Lion like his current school does, but I know it won't take long for that to change.  

I picked out a few backpacks for him to look at.  He'd asked me for weeks when he could get one.  So we sat down after vacation and looked at some on the computer.  He had real opinions about them, as though he knew what he was going to do with with it.  He wanted a cupholder (water bottle holder on the side), and he was sure he wanted baseballs on it.  I tried to remind him that baseball would end soon after school started and we didn't buy new backpacks every time the sports season changed, but he was insistent and Kenny reminded me that we wanted him to be excited about it on day one and we'd figure the rest out later.  
Three weeks to go!

Secrets

Max loves to tell secrets.  

He will tell you that he has a secret to tell you, wait for you to get really close and then almost yell in your ear.  It's really funny.  And his secrets are the same every time.  "I want to go to the pool and go under water and do the nose thing and pick up the ring from the bottom." These are both things Jack can do, and if you offer for Max to try them, when you're at the pool, he won't.  But that's always his secret.  

The other night he told me he had a secret for me and told me that same one.  When he got done, he said Momma, do you have a secret for me?  I said sure, and whispered, "I love you Roni" in his ear.  

He laughed and laughed and laughed.  

It was one of those moments I just wanted to bottle up forever.  

Sweet Big Brother

Max is going through a bit of a Momma phase at the moment where he needs Momma to do everything and be everywhere.  This morning, it was time for me to go to work and he just didn't really want me to go.  He said goodbye at least 4 times and laid in the floor and pouted and then I just had to go.  I knew it wasn't going to be pretty but I also knew nothing was going to make him happy, short of me staying home with him all day, which wasn't an option.  So I went on to work.  Not surprisingly, after I left, Max cried and cried and begged for Momma.  Kenny finally got him calmed down and was trying to get everyone out the door while he had things under control so he told Jack to hurry up and get his stuff and get to the door.  Jack was in the office drawing and told Kenny he'd be there in a second.  Kenny was obviously trying not to miss his window of Max being in an agreeable state, so he told Jack to hurry up, again.  Jack again responded that he'd be right there, he just needed to finish something.  After another minute or so, Jack came to Max with a little piece of paper.  

He'd drawn a picture of me for Max to keep in his pocket all day so he wouldn't miss me so much.  Max was apparently so very excited and kept up with it all day.  When he got home tonight, he gave it to me and told me all about how Jack drew it for him so he wouldn't be sad.  When Jack was going through a rough spot a few weeks ago, I'd cut up one of Kenny's old t-shirts and given Jack a piece to keep in his pocket all day.  If he missed Daddy, I told him to just rub on his t-shirt and he'd feel closer to him.  It must have worked because he wanted Max to have something just like it.

It's times like these when you realize that they are real people.  Real, sweet, people who care a lot about each other.