Growing Up

Well today marked a milestone in my journey as a mother...I did something that every Mother thinks about from the moment that their child is born, I Enrolled Maxwell in Kindergarten. It was such a bittersweet moment. I have thought about it form such a long time. "Where will he go? Will it be the right choice? Is he ready? Am I ready?" Well after much debate, many tours, and a few assessments, the answers are clear. Maxwell will be attending Southwest Elementary School. It is a good fit for him at this time in his life. I prayed about it a lot, and found peace when I entered the building. He is ready. He can read ( basic words and sounds), he can write (except 2's and 5's he gets backwards), he can count ( at least to 100), and he LOVES to learn. Am I ready? That still remains to be answered. I am so thankful to live in a country where my child has the opportunity and PRIVILEGE to attend school. There are many countries where this is not available to children. He has a wonderfully supportive family and extended family that value education and want the best for him. I still find it difficult to let him Grow up. I want him to grow, to learn, to become a productive member of society and to be happy. But it is all going so fast. As a teacher, I never thought I would have this much difficulty sending my child off to school. A place that I enjoy going to everyday. But it is so different from this prospective. I know he will do well and be happy. He couldn't wait to go see it. As we walked down the halls he wanted to go into every room and see if that was his teacher. He even told Nanny all about his Big Boy 5 year old school over the phone tonight. As I listened to him with such excitement, and tears in my eyes, I knew that he was ready and as a mother, I know the right thing to do. Yes he will go to school this August, with a new book bag, lunchbox and a smile. And as his mommy, I will take him, hug and kiss him, and then walk out the door as I send him on this new journey in his life. But I will Smile the whole time. And as I turn away and walk to the car I will cry. Tears of joy, for getting this far ( with God's help) and pride in Maxwell's accomplishments. But also with tears of sorrow, knowing that time goes by so quickly and that my BABY is no longer a Baby, but a Big 5 year old Boy. None of these feelings change the fact that I will continue to be thankful for the opportunity to have him in my life and more time to watch him grow. He truly is a blessing and I will continue to trust in God to watch after him in this new journey and to guide me in making the right choices for him. I just hope and pray that I don't hold on to tight or let go to soon.

Questions

This past Saturday was a very busy day. Maxwell had a birthday party (bowling), then a haircut ( which ended up being moved to Sunday) and then off to the movies with BCT and family. We went to see The Lightning Thief. For those of you unfamiliar with this movie, it is based a book where the main character, Percy Jackson , he discovers he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and the Greek god Poseidon. Percy and his friends go on a quest to prevent an apocalyptic war between the Greek gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Now that I have caught you up, you may be saying, BUT Maxwell is only 4! Are you crazy, " I didn't understand Greek mythology in High School and you want a 4 year understand it!" YES. I made up my mind, after reading the series, that this would be a good movie and if Maxwell didn't like it, we would leave and I would return and watch it later. He loved it. He loved it! (except the loud parts that hurt his ears) and had LOTS of questions. The only problem was that he had about a million questions. So I told him we would talk about it on the way home. True to form, we got in the car and first thing out of his mouth was "Mom I got some questions". So we began to discuss the movie, the characters, the actions, etc. Which then led to the following questions that I have had to answer over the last few days. Do you have the answers to these questions? If so, could you send them to me! I answered them on a wing and a PRAYER, that God would send the right answers to me.

1) If God is everywhere and made everything, Who made God?
2) Where are babies before they are in Mommy's belly?
3)If God made Adam and Eve first, are they my real Mommy and Daddy ?
4) I don't like the "underworld", will I go there if I am not nice to my friends? Followed by :"I wasn't nice to "E" at school. I wouldn't let him play with my car"
5) Will "S" ( a classmate) be there in the "underworld" because she isn't nice to ANYBODY!

Many more, but these were the toughest ones. My little man has questions A LOT! I try my best to answer them in a way that I feel is pleasing to God. But sometimes, all I can do is Pray that God answers them for me or gives me the right words. God hasn't EVER let me down, but I think I need to get my hearing checked because I had a hard time with these questions and I know God was sending me the words to say. I am not sure some days why I was given such a wonderful gift of a wonderful amazing son. But God has trusted me with this child and I know that HE wont let me fail Maxwell. He will give the courage, wisdom and guidance to raise him. The love is abundant, without a doubt and when words fail me, I know that I can lean on that love( the Love given to me by a wonderful God and the Love I get from a wonderful son) to get me through and answer those hard questions.

Brain Pain

So today's adventure begins with being at home for the 5th day this week due to winter weather (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Friday)! That is an adventure within itself. I don't really know how stay at home moms do it. GOD BLESS YOU ALL, I would be insane! Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my son. I love the summer when we can go and do things together, I love him. But staying at home during the winter when the weather is yucky out is not my idea of fun. Day one wasn't so bad, we playing in the snow. Day two was much of the same. However, by Monday, I was tired of the snow. So here we are again home, and because it is raining, we can't even go out. So we clean the playroom, watch Dawn of the Dinosaurs for the 8,492nd time and dance to the song Walk the Dinosaur for the 9000th. What can I say, he likes to "move it, move it". And then I decided to make lunch while he watches a bit of Noggin. Bananas, yogurt, sweet potato (with brown sugar and butter, of course) and Beanie Weenies (using turkey dogs and Bushes). So this is a pretty good lunch and Maxwell eats ( or has eaten) all the foods in the past. We sit down, he eats everything but the Beanie Weenies...then the battle begins. I don't mind if he doesn't eat, my theory is they eat when they are hungry..but Maxwell goes into a long speech ( tears included) about how he can't eat the Beanie Weenies because it will make his brain hurt! He needs DORITOS! This is my final straw, I leave the table as I laugh and remind him to finish he Beanie Weenies. I win the battle, but he did get the Doritos afterwards. So I guess the lesson is be careful of the Beanie Weenies...they make your Brain Hurt...but the cure is Doritos...a fairly tasty medicine:)