The good stuff

I write a lot about the goofy and sometimes gross things Little Dude does but rarely mention the charming and wonderful stuff. But there are good things or we’d all be crazy to have kids in the first place. These are the things that bring a smile to my face.

· When I tell Sam he has to be gentle he’ll come and pet me gently but as though I’m a dog.

· When he’s restless at night he’ll touch my face and hair, gently, just to make sure I’m still there.

· He gets the goofiest wide-eyed expression on his face when he realizes that something silly is going to happen. Sometimes he’ll throw in an excited “Oooooooo.”

· He throws his arms around me unexpectedly and gives me a huge hug.

· When I’m hurt (granted it’s usually due to something he’s done), he’ll kiss the offending body part to make it better. The magic kiss. One day I fell after slipping on something he left lying on the floor. At first he was scared and cried, then he came and kissed me. After that he said “Mommy fall down go boom!” as though it was a major revelation that people other than himself fall down.

· He tonelessly sings whenever it strikes his fancy. The alphabet song will flood the car or as he’s waking up from his nap he sings a bastardized version of Jingle Bells or sometimes he’ll be playing with his toys with a hushed version of Itsy Bitsy Spider escaping from his lips. Most times he sings way low in his throat so he sounds like a 3 pack a day smoker.

· As he runs (often away from me) he screams for joy.

· He’ll sing Ring Around the Rosie and when he falls down he plops flat on his butt and then wonders why it hurts.

· He’ll sometimes roll his eyes when he doesn’t agree with something I’ve said. I realize this will lose its charm well before puberty.

· When he dances he doesn’t move his feet but he has his upper body rocking back and forth while he does deep knee bends. It’s even more fun when he does this while singing.

· When he’s feeling insecure he’ll hold on to my thumb like a security object.

· His immediate and happy compliance to the “sit while eating” rule when there is a cookie at stake.

· The way he snuggles in when we read books. He loves books; I’m sure I could spend four hours a day reading and it still wouldn’t satisfy his lust for stories. I wondered if it would ever happen because when he was younger I’d read about two pages and he’d toss the book away.

· The goofy expression he gets on his face when he’s listening to someone talk to him on the phone. He has yet to answer anyone but he still always wants to listen.

· He lies on the floor to his room and look under the door when he doesn’t want to nap. Then he falls asleep right there.

I could go on and on in this sappy mode about his little charming quirks but I won’t since I’ve probably already made everyone roll their eyes and groan. These little moment help balance the moments that make much better stories but are not nearly as much fun from the parental point of view.