I often think we got crazy lucky with Kyle. Not that he's perfect and not to get all annoyingly braggy, but it's just that whenever I measure our parenting against the child he is, he comes out on top, always. He's just so much better than us, if that makes sense. We do our best, we love him to pieces, we are proud of our family unit, but it's very clear this kid has an unbelievable spirit that I think is all his own, that has so little to do with us as far as I can tell. It makes me feel very lucky. It makes me feel like I'm getting to witness a pretty spectacular person, not just a neat kid.
He is three and all that goes along with the age, sure, but he's just so sunny and bright and funny and warm. I just really, really love this kid.
Whenever he has something in his hands and therefore can't pick up something else I've asked him to, he looks at me, innocently, and says, "I've got two hands!" (instead of "I've only got two hands!") It's adorable.
He still calls granola bars "hot bars" and I'll never correct him as long as he lives. YOU DON'T EITHER.
The other day, I suggested a shirt for him to wear and he said, "Oh yeah! Kyle likes that shirt." It was weird and hilarious and that about sums up three right there.
Whenever I tell him no, he immediately goes into negotiation mode. "Mommy, can I watch George?" "No, it's bedtime." "I just want to watch one minute! Just one minute then bed time!" "No." "How about just four minutes?" "You are very bad at negotiating."
He's an only child, so he's taken to treating Molly like a sibling. "SHE IS LOOKING AT MY BAGEL." "MOMMMMMM, MOLLY SAT IN MY SPOT." "Molly! Go lay down! GO!" That poor poor poor poor dog. But, the other night when I yelled at Molly myself for being crazy (BECAUSE SHE IS), Kyle turned to me with true anger and said, "Be nice to Molly! She is MY FRIEND."
We have a house rule that he can stay up as late as he wants as long as he stays in bed. He can't bring toys into bed (other than books) and he can't get out of bed, but he can stay up as late as he wants if he obeys those rules. Some nights, he's in there at 9 p.m. singing so loudly to himself, I have to politely ask him to sing just a little quieter so we can actually hear each other. It's kind of fantastic.
Mike and I leave for a week-long vacation tomorrow and I'm over-the-moon excited (we really need this trip together after a difficult couple months of losing dear family members and stressful jobs and fender benders and everything else that goes along with daily adult life), but it's never easy leaving this kid.
I think it makes us better parents and spouses, and we come back buzzing with excitement to hug all over him, but we'll still miss him like mad, we'll probably talk about nothing else the first and last day, and we'll no doubt beg for a dozen pictures of him every hour while we're gone.
He's just a really easy kid to miss.