Yesterday, a friend who is expecting her first baby was over and asking me about nursing accessories and all the general accouterments of bringing home those tiny wonderful monsters of sleep deprivation. A fitting task given that four years ago today I stood up and my water broke totally movie style, putting into motion a series of events that would change our lives in the most bizarre and wonderful ways.
He’s had a year of hard stuff and good stuff. He went to preschool and literally never looked back. He plunged head long into the very big boy world of Legos and making friends without his mother at his side with only slight apprehension. He gets his hair cut like a champ, bringing praise from all the old men at the barber shop and lollipops from the woman who does the work. He loves numbers and colors and building things. If I had to guess right now, I would say he will be an engineer but if you ask him, he’ll tell you that he is already a firefighter and that he will always be one. We wouldn’t have a problem with that at all.
He wants the same cake that I made for him last year, but it was a tough one and I am trying to sway him to something simpler. He wants the same things when he nods off to sleep – Fire Pig, his blanket that matches the crib set and his tiny blue Ikea pillow, but now he only does that at night. He wants to eat more protein – last week’s discovery that there were no more hamburgers on the table brought tears. He wants Guy Time every night and would prefer that it is spent playing bears and rattlesnakes or football on the Wii. He wants long sleeves on when he goes to bed and rock and roll shoes when he’s going out. He wants to see Evan and Owen. He wants to know what Rachel is doing right now. He wants to climb to the top of the First National tower and walk across the pedestrian bridge with the whole family. He wants the Lego Police Station but only asks for it if you mention his birthday or are standing right in front of it in Target. Speaking of which, he only wants to shop there or HyVee. If you mention Wal-Mart, he will attempt a redirect. He has an amazing sense of direction. He can guide you to church and to Poppy’s house and Yaya’s work and Rachel’s house. He can get you to the library and PetSmart (if he wants to look at snakes, something that has (Praise God!) been declining). He can tell you what you need to do to get to heaven.
He is thoughtful and wild, introspective and adventuresome, brave and deliberate. He is perfectly Gideon and he is four.
