Sweethearts in the Making

The other day, Ian and I picked up Sophie from bowling practice. She asked me to carry her bag with her bowling ball and I took it for her. Two seconds later this tall handsome young man swept it out of my hands and started carrying it without a word.

It was Ian. My heart melted with happiness. I always wanted to raise my boys into gentlemen and here he was making my dream come true. I love that boy.

Tonight at parent teacher conferences, his teachers gushed about him. The teacher who he TAs for said he is the best TA she has ever had. She told me how he helps out the kids in the class and they call him the tall one and they all look up to him and think he is cool. She kept saying, "it's this class of 7th graders and then there is Ian so they all look up to him" until I was like, "you do know that Ian is in 7th grade, right?" She said she knew, but she just meant that he is so tall.

This boy was tall before he was born. At every ultrasound he measured at least 3 weeks ahead of schedule for length, and right on schedule for weight. Tall and skinny even then.

Katie lost a front tooth today. Now both top front teeth are missing. She put the tooth in a cup of water to wash it off. Tonight when she went to put it under her pillow, she grabbed a cup by the fridge that I had refilled several times to drink water and she said, "Oh no! My tooth is gone!" She was so upset and I was thinking I had swallowed her tooth (ew!). I swear I even started to imagine swallowing it and, even though I could not believe I swallowed it without noticing, I was starting to feel an imagined hard lump somewhere deep in my throat. Then, a few minutes later, I realized she had left the tooth in a different cup that was next to the one she thought it was in. Catastrophe averted!

She wrote a note to the tooth fairy explaining the whole funny situation. The note begins with "I love you." When I saw that, my heart melted again. I love that she loves the tooth fairy. I love that she decorated the note with beautiful sparkly butterfly stickers that she picked out at the store yesterday--unselfishly giving away something so special to her. That girl is always showering the people she loves with gifts from the heart.

After parent teacher conferences, I volunteered at the junior high book fair. Things were slow and I started thumbing through a copy of Ripley's Believe it or Not. I was thinking how much Isaac loves that type of book and I ended up buying that one plus another unbelievable fact book. I'm not usually frivolous and spontaneous with my money however I realized that I'm always thinking about buying him more books like that because he checks them out from the library and owns one or two and he reads them every night and eats them up. But, I'm always putting someday off.

Earlier today, Katie was talking about how special her stuffed animals are to her and how she likes to talk to them and I suddenly remembered a moment when Ian was five and I walked in on him playing a game of "Trouble" with his three webkinz stuffed animals. They were sitting around the corners of the board and he would take one of their paws in his hand to push the plastic bubble in the center of the board (to roll the dice) and then use their paw to move a game piece around the board. Then he would move to the next player and repeat. It was one of the most dear things I have ever seen.

A few years later he gave those precious webkinz away to his brother and sisters because he didn't have a use for them anymore (and he knew giving them away would make them happy + he is really good at decluttering like that).

When I saw Katie treasuring her stuffed animals today and I thought about how quickly Ian grew from that sweet five year old boy to the sweet taller-than-me teenager that he is today and I had one of those moments where it really hit me how fast time flies.

So, I saw those books and I bought them. As predicted, Isaac was very excited. Plus I think he felt pretty special when he asked to see what books I bought for the other kids and I said, "I didn't buy any books for the other kids. I only bought books for you." He read a bunch of facts about possible ways the world could end (according to science) until I made him go to bed. I'm sure I will see him reading these books many more times in the months to come. I am so glad I seized the moment.