Starting way too early

One day last week, after his snack had been consumed and his homework completed, A got very busy at his table in the sunroom. He was very quiet out there, totally absorbed in his work with only the scritch scritch sound (the one that makes J's hair practically stand on end) of the markers to indicate his presence.

He proudly showed me what he had created: a card for one of the girls in his class, Isabella.
The "IC" is not an editorial comment, but her initials...along with his initials, "AM", over drawings of them (for some reason, he drew her as the taller one of the two). He also included drawings of their houses, rainbows, and lots and lots of hearts. When I asked him if Isabella was his girlfriend, he rather disdainfully said "No, Mommy, I just like her!" Silly me.

He then proceeded to make little paper hearts for the rest of the girls in the class, in case they should feel left out. He carefully printed each one's initials on the hearts, along with his initials.

When I asked him the next day how his gifts had been received, he told me that everyone had liked them, except Emily - she said she didn't want hers.

That Emily. She doesn't know what she is missing!

Are you winning?

On Sunday afternoon, when I was in the throes of the flu bug, A heard me tell J that I was running a fever.

A: "Why do you have a fever?"

Me: "Because my body has an infection somewhere in it, and the fever is my body's way of fighting it."

A looked at me for a moment, then carefully said: "Is your body winning?"

Despite my discomfort, I had to laugh! And I also had to admit that I really didn't know if my body was winning or not.