My fine gentleman

Yesterday morning Liam had apparently set an internal goal to not sass for a whole day.  He got ready for school with no issues, no yelling, and no sassing.  We were impressed.  I even said to Ian, “What did you do differently this morning?  He is so great!”  He replied with a reality check, “Gina, it’s only one day.”  Um, yes, I guess that is right, but he later came home from school with a “super” rating and then the rest of the night he was a dream child.  He listened to my requests and would say okay instead of the normal belligerence.

It was so wonderful! 

He politely asked me after I got home from work if he could do his Thursday and Friday chores so he could get his allowance early.  I thought about it and complied.  He then asked politely if we had time to go to Target to get a new Skylander figure for his video game.  He had finally saved enough for it!  I said if he could get all his chores done in 30 minutes then we could go.

And he did.

And we did.

From Target we went over to Pei Wei to have his favorite noodle dish and had a nice conversation and here is a fraction of it:  He said, “You know how when I get a “super” at school that you will snuggle me?”  I said, “Yes.”  He went on, “Well I wonder if I am getting kind of too old for snuggling at night.”  This made me smile a big smile.  I said, “You know, Liam, all ages of kids grow out of all kinds of things at different times. It is up to you.  And we don’t JUST snuggle – we talk to each other too.”  He nodded as he considered that and agreed saying, “That is true.”

Now, I don’t know if he’ll suddenly be okay with no snuggle time at night, but this is surely a sign that it may be phasing out in the coming weeks, months, or years.  IF it does phase out, I will miss our sweet pillow talks.  Wonderful information, curiosities, and teaching moments come to the surface when it’s time to say good-night.