Gratitude post for day #8…Today I am grateful for my son, which is likely to be a common theme as I’m grateful for him every second of every day. He fills my bucket by just being.

But tonight we instituted the first official “Boys Night”. He pointed out to me that we’ve had lots of boys nights out, just the two of us, but I wanted him to see this one as something special that we plan, we commit to doing. Was it anything amazing? Nope, we just went out for dinner at McDonald’s, and then off to Chapters to spend the $$ he got for Christmas from his aunt Sharon. Mommy and Daddy added a bit to it and he bought more Magformers. It was awesome watching his brain work tonight, for two totally separate events.

First, before we left, he showed me the “worksheet” that he did at daycare. His daycare provider, Ana, has another kid a bit older than Jacob and she likes to give them homework while they are there — little math worksheets or spelling worksheets. Do you remember J is in Senior Kindergarten? It doesn’t stop him from beating the other kid (Grade 3) on some stuff, particularly spelling. This isn’t the fun part that he beats him, but that he can do it at all, and so well individually. But he showed me his worksheet tonight — Ana has upped the game for the new year. Jacob was doing his multiplication tables for 8x and 9x tonight. 20 questions? J got 17 of them right. Including nailing 9×5. When I asked him again on the spot what a couple of them were, no problem, he nailed them. I think I did multiplication tables in Grade 4!

Second, at the store tonight, he had a choice of three Magformers kits. And while I helped him a bit with his analysis of what was the difference between the boxes, he said “no” to one that was very similar but didn’t have wheels, and “no” to a much larger set that also didn’t have wheels nor the colours he wanted. He knew the other one was more expensive, more pieces, and just plain bigger, but it wasn’t what he wanted — he found the set he wanted, that met his needs, and with the exception of one minor change of mind (he found another set at the back of the shelf with better colours), he worked it all out himself. Then when we went to pay, I had given him too much, not knowing the exact price and wanting him to pay for it in person, but he knew that he didn’t have to give all of it to her and gave the rest back to me. He even commented that we saved money and we didn’t have to “use all of your extra money, Daddy”.

He may not have opened up about his day much today, as that is always hit or miss, but I had a good night and he went to bed happy. He also knows what we’re doing next week, and he’s down with the plan (and knows he can’t tell Mom what the project is!).

I go to bed with an extra full heart tonight. Thanks, cub.

Onward in the journey…