Schooled It On Monday

Owen was screaming all morning. It was his happy little bursts of screams that made him laugh, look at me, and then wait for my reaction. Sometimes, a lot of the times, it’s so he can see my reaction. The self-appointed queen of facial expressions has to sit motionless through so many moments, hoping that this was the right decision to let it all pass. There isn’t a one size fits all rule book that I can read to get this daily life correct. It always feels like one rookie mistake will keep us hinged to the next move. The look told me more screams were coming. Brilliant words trickled from my mouth, “there’s no reason to scream don’t even think about it”. “Think about it”, he says. He thought about it though. He didn’t scream the next time he came running to me, they came later. But this time the screams were different, echoing a moment of distress. His tablet wasn’t performing correctly, the internet cutting in and out for a few minutes. In these moments he now comes to me for help; sometimes in patience and sometimes in angst. We moved on from all that to get ready for our day. He really was having a good morning, he had slept all night in his bed, only coming to me for his good morning hug. He was listening really well to most of my instructions. I try to have him help me with the steps of getting him dressed. All I can think is he’s come a long way. He’s seven and he can’t put on his shoes, but I think he can take them off. That’s the progress I cling to. I also worried that he wouldn’t be able to tell me if his socks didn’t feel right or he had a rock in his shoe, but those glorious words are right on the edge of explanation. He’s able to get his point across in many different ways now. More emotions fill my heart with every word and smile he gives me. We had a dance-off in the kitchen, him actually laughing and joining me for once. His smile is my rocket ship out of this world. Find your inspiration and take your dream to new heights. Smiles to all and donut daze!