slow down, Aidan

I want to remember all the things Aidan says.  I want to remember his face when he says them.  When he was 2 1/2 I raced him up the stairs, spread out my arms and said, "I'm the winner!"  He was close behind with arms wide, shouting, "I'm the loser!"  Months before that he came into my room and wowed me with his first simile.  "Come downstairs, Mom."  "Just a minute," I stalled.  "Come on, fast like a cowboy."  I came with a melted heart (what English teacher mom wouldn't?).   Tonight I tucked him in for bed, and pulled up his two blankets.  He didn't want them both, so I said I'd put one on the top bunk.  "That's not your responsibility.  I'll do it later," was his retort.  He's 3.  Where does he learn these words?  How do these concepts hatch in his tiny head?  He's moving & growing so fast.   Too fast.  I want to hold & keep him mine forever, but his mind already moves beyond what I've taught & thought.  We were at Jim's parents' the other day.  Papa typically farewells A by saying, "Goodbye, Fred."  A beat him to it this time with a grinning, "Goodbye, Freddy, Old Pal."  He asks me if  Jesus can help Darth Vader be good.  He points out when I'm not being good.  He says, "I think I can forgive you."  I'm sure I'll need much more of that.  Oldest children seem to grow up far too quickly.   Thank you, Aidan, for being delighted & delightful, for keeping me company, and for a mind that's always moving.  I'll have to work hard to keep up.

Comments

[Mandy]

What a smart little guy. He sounds much older than his years. How entertaining!

[Annalisa]

I wish I had written down some of the grown-up things Alexis had said when she was 2 & 3. OK, she's 5 and I still haven't started. Slacker!
My friend once mocked me for telling her 2-year-old to cooperate. She thought the word was too big for kids, but I say that's how they learn to talk. We don't need to dumb down our speech for our children. They're smarter than we are.
What grade do you teach? Or did you (do you still work)? I majored in English (almost did teaching too) and get giddy about good grammar (wow! what alliteration; totally unintended). Alexis correctly used the subjunctive the other day and I couldn't have been prouder.

[Price Cream Parlor]

Any, I love that you have captured those moments by writing them down. I am constantly calling someone to tell them what H said - but I need to be better about writing them down when he says them. Treasures!

[Kelly]

These are the things you always think you will remember, and then somehow you don't. Keep blogging them! Aidan is such a character. I need to come see you -- last time he wanted to sleep with a wrench. It's almost been 2 years. He has become very grown uppish.

[Amy]

Annalisa, I taught high school - British & American & World Lit. I love Lit. I dream of being an obscure expert on obscure writing, showing up on documentaries in a tiny office against a backdrop of crammed bookcases and wild stacks of papers. Ah...such dreams.

Ya, Kel, we're honestly due for a visit - here, there or somewhere between. Now he sleeps nude, with no wrenches. I seriously can't keep pj's on that child.

[Annalisa]

We probably had classes together at the Y. Most of my electives were literature classes. Too funny.
It's Arizona. I think I'd sleep nude if we lived there :)