Responsible

Dear Buzz,

Every month I think back to the month past and I am amazed at how much you have grown. Your actions, your activities, your questions – they take me by surprise every single time.

A few weekends back Bugz woke up in the morning and woke you up as well. You two walked in to our room but it was still early so you turned to Bugz and said “Mumma needs to sleep, let’s go down.” Unable to sleep knowing the two of you were alone, I walked down 10 or so minutes later to find the two of you sitting on your chairs on the deck eating strawberries. You looked up and said “I washed them before putting them in bowls Mumma.” I was speechless. Since then you seem to relish being the one to give Bugz her morning snack on weekends. I stay in bed listening to your conversations and smile. “Bugz what do you want to eat today?” you ask. She replies and you surprise me every time. Last Sunday I came down to see you two eating bread. You had gotten the packet of bread out of the fridge,  pulled a chair to put two slices in the toaster, gotten two plates out, waited for the bread slices to get toasted, applied butter to both of them. I was speechless is an understatement.

Early in the summer your class was a mix of kids from different grades. The older kids could do the monkey bars, you could hang from one bar but could not traverse. You worked on it every chance you got and a month later you were hanging off them, well like a monkey. You have blisters on your palms but you count them with pride and keep on with your monkey bars. Any visit to the park come with only one pre-requisite, it should have monkey bars.

You learned how to ride a bike last year but that was on a small bike. This year we got you a big girl bike. It is high, your feet barely touch the ground while you are on it, you haven’t really mastered the getting on the bike yourself part but you love ridding, especially when one of us takes out our bike and ride with you. The other thing you love is when your Paa and I go for a run and you ride alongside us. Excited, confident, you keep talking while the out of breadth us try to keep up with you.

Your Paa had dreamt a dream from I don’t even know when. You fulfilled part of it last winter when you skied alongside him. The other part came true last month when you climbed. We bought you a harness, fixed a rope on top of a rock wall and you climbed while your Paa belayed you. He gave you a little pull to move you a tad bit higher when you were totally stuck but for the most part your climbed up on your own. When you got to the top of that rock wall I could not make up my mind who I should focus on, your hand waving from the top or your Paa’s face radiating with pride.

You are processing everything you see and hear and are adding further layers to them. Your questions are getting more and more complicated to have straightforward answers. You understand that a doctor helps get a baby out of mommy’s tummy but now you wonder how the baby gets there in the first place. You asked me where did the first first first man come from and I reply with the easiest thing that comes to my mind, “they came from monkeys.” “Really? Really Mumma!” you asked over and over again and I thought we were done. The next day you came back with “Where did the first, very first living thing come from?” That you made the man to monkey to first living thing connect held me in shock. The next thought was”, how do I explain this?” Darwin’s theory of evolution here we come! You wanted to know “Is God for real, Mommy?” Unsure about how to answer, I replied, “Some people believe God is real and some people believe he is not.” You thought about that for a minute and asked “What do you believe, Mumma?”

Last year during the school year, your teachers taught you the concept of responsibility. They kept repeating that doing and bringing your homework back to school was the responsibility of every kid and not the parents. They told you that you had to be the ones to remind the parents when something was needed at school. They insisted that you had to remember to carry your own things home. “I am responsible!” you tell us constantly. Yes you are sweetheart and so grown up. Your insistence in helping me as I cook, the pride with which you tell everyone that you are the tallest kid in your class, your taking care of Bugz, your big hugs, your ever present smiles – I love it all and wish that  continue to grow beautifully. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay you. Always!

Love,
-Maa