"Just a Minute" month (29)

I'm labeling this the "just a minute" month, because that's Wilson's new favorite phrase... and because that's how long this month took. Just a minute. Where, oh where, are all these seconds going?

Little Man got his first black eye this month. He was one little monkey jumping on the bed... whose eye had a sudden fate with the foot board. I watched it grow out two inches in a matter of seconds and Andrew had to calm us both down. The picture below does no justice to the terrible deformity of it all, but the blueness is slowly fading. His all-boyness is not.

He is suddenly very into pretending. He especially loves to make inanimate objects talk. I have such sweet memories of thinking my toys were real (maybe that's why I love Toy Story so much?), and so I'm totally embracing this imagination. When we put him to bed each night, Andrew prays with us and then leaves Wilson and I to lay and talk about our day and sing for a few (or 30) more minutes. Now, he only wants his animals to ask him about his day or sing him songs. And he always wants to know what all four animals (Baby Bear, Mama Bear, Bonzo & Meemur) did that day, too. How thoughtful.

He really likes getting out of the house (much to my dismay... I'm such a homebody!), and will request places to go. "Mama, wanna go to the toy store?"  "Mama, wanna go to Target?" "Mama, wanna go to li-burry?" He says it with such a sweet voice that it's hard to ever say no.

He gets really excited when there will be friends at those places. Margaret is still the favorite.

He has gotten so much more compliant this month and I can only remember a couple of times that we had to put him in time out. Maybe we are just in an "ebb" and there is a "flow" coming... but I'm going to relish in the sweetness.

He is still so captivated with animals and I really love that this is part of who he is. Andrew took him to a "safari" in Louisiana while I was out of town last weekend, and he can't stop talking about how the giraffe ate out of his cup and how the kangaroos hopped "like this mama!" and how the baby dear was looking for his mama dear.

I'm vowing right here to start writing down all of the funny things he says because there is at least one thing a day that makes me laugh and wish someone else heard it. He's really just a joy.

Sometimes when I'm about to leave his room at night he'll say, "Don't leave. I want to play with your hair for just a minute." And I'll think about how embarrassed he's going to be about that story someday. And then I think about ten years from now when I'll probably be lucky to even be invited into his room... and for a minute that will make me sad. But then I'll remember that I'm living in the moment and will climb back in the bed and kiss his whole face and hope all that love gets stored up in his heart somewhere. Because I know that 12 year old boy will be here... in just a minute.