Changing So Fast, But Not Too Fast

I’ve been noticing lots of changes in Ryan.  He can do so much more himself lately.  Like packing shoeboxes on his own and checking mine to see if I missed anything.  And changing Erik’s diaper and getting him dressed for the day while I was sick.  He gets himself dressed everyday and makes his bed, well sometimes. He’s starting to pick books and read them on his own.  Last night  when I was cooking he ran in to tell me he had read a new book to Daddy “almost perfectly.”

After dinner we went to a play, “The Elves and the Shoemaker.”  Around dinner time he began asking the usual questions like, “Will there be scary music like last time?”  I still can’t recall what terrifying song they tortured him with in “Goodnight Moon.”  I’m pretty sure the old lady was trying to get the bunny to sleep not scare him.  I assured him this was a fun play and there was nothing to worry about.  I wondered if he would once again sit on my lap for the entire hour long play.  As tired as my legs were I loved every minute of him pressed up against me where I could enjoy each smile and giggle up close.  We found our seats and Ryan sat next to me snuggled up as close as he could get with the armrest between us.  I put my arm around him and the lights went low.  And there we sat, the whole show, snuggled together, each in our own seats.  I still had a perfect view of each smile and giggle, just a little farther away.  “I sat in my own seat the whole time,” he proudly told me.  “I know.  You’re getting to be so grown up,” I told him.  I couldn’t help but be proud of him, and yet a little sad.  We have quite a history of him crawling into my lap for any and every type of performance.  I think it may be yet another change.

After the lights turned back up I told him how much I enjoyed going to plays with him.  I have wanted to take him to these shows since he was born.   And now here we were, our third play.  He talked about Wolfgang, the mean human, and the rest of the play the whole way home.  He burst into the house to find Harvey and tell him all about the play and then it was off to bed.  The next morning it was back to the play.  He wanted to know how the elves (the actors) made the shoes so fast.  I explained that the actors had shoes hidden in the table to pull out at the right time.  “Yeah, because elves aren’t real.  It’s not a real story like Santa Claus.”  I just smiled.  He is changing so fast, but not too fast!