Boyish

I'm noticing this pattern. Jonah goes through times when he's just impossible. Stubborn, whiny, fighting me on everything. I get so exasperated with him! He refuses to eat the food I give him, he doesn't ever seem to get enough sleep. He complains nonstop and resists everything I say.

This will go on for a while, and then...

The clouds break.

The sun shines again.

My sweat boy returns, and he's carrying some new piece of the man I can glimpse in his future. He's matured in some new way and his sweetness increases and I revel in the joy of his boyhood.



I know that picture above is not very well-composed (the tractor was moving and I'm just not so good with moving targets), but I just love the juxtaposition of Nathan's strong arms next to Jonah's baby fat and elbow dimple.



This is the way it's been lately. He just got over what seemed like an eternity of tantrums and resistance, and now we're on the sunny side. All of a sudden, he says things that are so thoughtful and insightful, and his sentences are better constructed. I can see that his observations are deepening. I don't know why these developments have to come after storms, but they always do. (Remind me of this next time I'm complaining that he's driving me nuts!)

He's been very proud of the good work he's doing with his Daddy on the tractor (it always helps when there's heavy equipment involved). Case in point: I no longer have a pit right beneath my kitchen screen door. The foundation work is done (on that side, anyway)! The drain tiles are laid! The trenches are filled! I can walk out from my kitchen and straight into the garden. I made sure to lay on the praise for this work, and Jonah ate it up. I can't say that he, himself, necessarily contributed very heavily to this project, but he feels like he did, and he feels good about hard work (a little, anyway...). I think that's the most important thing in learning to work hard-- learning how good it feels to have a job well done.

A little while ago, he came running in the house saying, "Mom! Mom, I need you to come and tell me if these flowers are eh- ebiddle!"

"What flowers?"

"Out here, where Daddy's digging. Come and see!"

So he very purposefully led me out near the barn and pointed. "Oh, wait, you can't see them from here! Come on, Mom, let's go closer!"

Turns out he wanted me to look at some wild grapes on a grape vine growing up a tree. (Which is significant, considering I've never seen any actual grapes on the wild grape vines that grow everywhere here.) He wanted to know if we should pick them. I told him we'd let them ripen some more.

He asks me nine hundred million questions every day, and expects a complete answer for every one. He's learning so many things about this world and it's just so much fun to watch. I can't help but melt a little bit when I see his dirty, backwards-clothed little body running in the summer sunshine down to the barn to "work on a project".

I've always thought 4 year old boys are so obnoxious --and they are-- but I've just never had one of my own to enjoy all the good stuff mixed in.



I love boys. And I want a whole houseful of them.

You might say that I may eat my words one day, but I doubt it.