tonight at dinner i had one of those ‘ah ha’ moments. ah ha in the sense that maybe, just maybe we’re doing something right. that the countless months of repeating words, gently correcting and suggesting things like ‘juice, please mommy’ and ‘no thank you bayla’ had finally paid off.  and truly, beyond these minute (yet totally major) things like manners, our son is understanding a compassionate, thoughtful and grateful way of being. woah.

these wonderful attributes that we have not taught directly but perhaps led by example (minus the day last week when justin stubbed his toes on the vacuum and shouted, ‘OH FUCKER!’only to be repeated by a well thought out, ’OH UCK-ERR!’) are slowly emerging as jackson transforms into an amazing little man.

we had just finished a throw-together-sunday meal of tomato, pasta and spinach soup. i had a huge container of cooked pasta and 3/4 of a can of diced tomatoes and a big bag of on-the-way-out baby spinach. in google, spinach + pasta + diced tomatoes = our dinner. (i added a rue with parmesan cheese because it just needed something more…). anyway, i was thinking aloud of what we could offer jackson for dessert. justin got up and suggested tapioca pudding. i said something along the lines of, ‘wow, daddy’s going to share his tapioca with you jackson, now that’s special!’ (it’s a big fav of justin’s and he doesn’t give it up easily). jackson’s eye’s it up as he screeched, ‘PUUUDIN, PUUUDIN!’

a few minutes had gone by, justin and i were still eating our soup (which actually got better and better the more you ate). jackson looked up from his pudding and quietly but surely said, ‘thank you daddy’. not the usual thank you we have trained to follow certain words or actions, but an out of the blue like he really thought about it kind of a thank you. holy melt my heart into a big puddle. and hallelujah, all at once.