One of my favorite things about being your mom is watching you grow and change around the clock. Sometimes I feel like you go to bed one person and you wake up another, older, wiser person. Even you, Liam, as a baby are changing so much right before our eyes. You're taking more and more steps every day and demonstrating your independence along with your toddling abilities. Soon you'll be running everywhere and we won't be able to keep up!
Micah, tonight you called me into your room a few minutes after Daddy had turned out the light. You have this thing lately, ever since we had a bad storm in the not-so-distant past, where you think you see lightning flashes out your window and it scares you a little. Reassurance comes when you and I go out on the porch to see if we can see the lightning together. I think being together and me holding you makes you feel safe, and you even enjoy the flashes of light.
So I picked you up in my arms and we went out on the porch. It's so humid already, even though it's only May 3, but the night was clear. Then we had the following conversation:
Micah: "I don't see any lightning. The stars are on!"
Mommy: "Yes, all the stars are on."
Micah: "No thunder tonight."
Mommy: "No, I don't hear any thunder."
Micah: "Maybe the thunder is at the mall. I hear it there with my ears."
Mommy: "We did hear it there with our ears a few weeks ago."
Micah: "Maybe that's a good idea."
A few reasons I will always cherish this conversation between the two of us.
1. Who but a child can look at the night sky and remark that the stars are on? I never thought of it that way, but you're right. One minute you can't see them and the next you can, just like turning on a light.
2. "Hearing with my ears." This was a phrase I started using at Christmastime. I was trying to differentiate between you watching Mickey Mouse on the computer and listening to your Mickey CD. You understood ears and eyes at the time, but not the concept of hearing and seeing. So I would tell you when we were in the car that we were going to listen to Mickey with your ears. Now, when you're listening for anything in particular, you always "Hear it with your ears".
3. We were indeed at the mall with Grandma a few weeks ago when one of the big storms hit. I think that's when you really got your first memorable taste of thunder and lightning, so now you seem to always associate the mall with the bad weather. To me, it's priceless that you somehow think that the thunder and lightning live at the mall.
4. "Maybe that's a good idea." We've been trying to get you to understand the difference between things you're supposed to do (good ideas) and things you're not supposed to do (bad ideas). "Maybe that's a good idea" or "Maybe that's a bad idea" are now your favorite phrases and you use them at really funny times, like tonight when you're talking about it being a good idea that the lightning and thunder live at the mall.
Micah, your two-and-a-half-year-old perspective is such a joy to experience. While I know that you are growing up and will soon stop expressing things in such a unique way, I hope that you are never afraid to have a different perspective and communicate it. Because the world is so boring when everyone falls into line behind one another and everyone wears the same color and everyone has the same opinion and everyone is afraid of their own unique spirit.
Don't be afraid. Be you. Always be you. Because you are already one of the most interesting people I have ever met and the world would be a much darker place without your unique spirit.
Love,
Mommy
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