I really love when things make them proud- and it's always the little things. For instance, today I bought Max and Gabe new toothbrushes- we've been buying the firefly brand, because you can squeeze the bottom and the handle will light up for 60 seconds- the idea being that you brush for a full minute. While Max was sitting in the cart, I picked up the new toothbrush and squeezed it and his eyes lit up immediately. Now I should point out that Max doesn't use his toothbrush for just his teeth-- he uses it on his hair, his Daddy's hair and anyone who will open their mouth. It's precious, albeit gross.
Anyway, the grocery store, which is usually very painful with Max at this age, because he wants everything, he wants to be exploring, not sitting in the cart, he thinks he should hold and eat everything, and he'll squeal- loud, like a pig- if I'm not paying him enough attention. But that was not the case today. He held his toothbrush out, like it was the finest most wonderful thing he had every been in possession of. Then, once we paid for it, and I took it out of the package, he clung to my shoulder with one arm, and his new toothbrush with the other, held his chin high, and just had the proud smile on his face. Again, PRECIOUS!
It's the little moments :)
And then, I had a precious Gabe encounter as well. When it's meal time with Gabe, it's often a war- his stomach hurts or he's full as soon as it's time to eat vegetables or beans, etc- but it's amazing that it never happens when he's at chickfila, or Olive Garden, or eating pizza.... hmmmm. Anyway, he's also very wasteful when it comes to lunch at school and I'm stickler for healthy stuff-- I don't do lunchables or things with preservatives-- I try to keep sugar to a minimum, too. Painful if you're in 2nd grade. Gabe is also VERY talkative, so while at lunch, socializing comes first and eating comes second, if there is time- especially if it's something he doesn't want to eat. Then he just throws away what he doesn't eat-- which would be sneaky, except that he's still very honest, praise the Lord, and when I ask him what he ate and what he threw in the garbage, he'll tell me, ha! So anyway, lunch is a war- most days I lecture him about eating and how it is my responsibility that he eat well since God trusted me with him, yadda yadda. So I decided that I should include a love note in his lunch to overset the lectures- I wrote:
"Dear Gabe, This is a love note from your girlfriend: I love you! Love, Lauren" on girly paper in black sharpie.
And then I didn't hear a word about it for several days. I decided he was probably embarassed by my love...
Until Monday, when something happened the reminded him of the love note, and he told me how everyone in his class was jealous and saying "no fair" that he got a love note. Apparently all the girls in his class wanted to read it too. He was so proud when he was telling me this story that he held his shoulders back and strutted while replaying it. Oh my goodness, it was so precious that I just couldn't stand it. He wasn't embarrassed at all. Apparently, he also told his class that he actually has 2 girlfriends and they are both adults. (One is me- it started when he was 3 and I was his Dad's girlfriend and the other is my cousin Nicole who lives in Indiana- he refers to her as his Indiana girlfriend. I think he likes her more, but lucky for me, I win by proximity!) And again, everyone said "no fair". (I'm pretty sure that's one of the main phrases used in 2nd grade-- Chad is trying to eliminate it from the mouth and heart of our 2nd grader- but it feels like we are losing that battle at the moment.)
Then, as if that story wasn't sweet enough, I got home from work and found this on my counter:
It was all taped up around the edges, and when I opened it, I found this:
That's right-- a flower and a UGA sticker. The boy is already good at love notes-- and it got special placement into my love notes box.
Thank you Jesus for the precious boys and precious moments and reminders of just how blessed I am!
This made me cry!! How sweet! :)
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