Butterfly Kisses

My oldest son (it still sounds funny to me that I have to specify oldest and youngest) has the longest eyelashes ever. Why do boys get blessed with long eyelashes? Probably because God knows they aren't going to destroy them with all the gobs of mascara.

Anyway, he still gives me butterfly kisses and they are the sweetest. So gentle, so kind, so caring, so loving.

His butterfly kisses pretty much sum up his personality. He is one of the most compassionate 6 year olds I've ever met. His heart truly breaks for those who are hurting and all he wants to do is help everyone.

One thing I was worried about when he started school was that he would become jaded and hardened to the world. There are mean kids out there and I was terrified they would hurt him or his feelings or worse yet, burrow their way into his head and change him.

Thankfully, that hasn't been the case, yet. Part of it could be that we start every morning asking him if he's going to be a leader or a follower and he always responds "leader". When we ask him if he knows what that means, he says "It means that I will do the right thing even if everyone else is doing the wrong thing."

I'm going to take a moment to brag because positivity is always needed and, quite frankly, it's my blog I can brag if I want to. Here are some things that he has done lately that make me burst with pride for him.

• Moose was telling me about a classmate named Isaac.
  Me: Did you tell him your brother's (Junior) middle name is Isaac?Moose: Well, actually, at first I told him I didn't want to be his friend because he's bad. (I explained why that wasn't nice) Then I told him about Junior and that made him happy! Then I told him that before he does anything, he should turn around and look at me and do whatever I'm doing and he won't get in trouble. 
• There is a little boy in his class that has been having a problem with wetting his pants. I said "you don't make fun of him do you?" He replied, "No, I usually walk him back to the class to get clean clothes." He told me "Mommy, I told him like you tell me. 'You have to listen to your body. If your body is telling you that you have to go potty, then you need to go so you don't have an accident.' And you know what mommy? He didn't have an accident for a few days!" 
• He came home one day and was telling me about a little boy in the other kindergarten class who has a disease (Moose is 6 he didn't know how else to explain it). I asked if he mean the little boy who has down syndrome and he said yes. He had lots of questions, would he ever get better, could Junior get it, if mommy had it would she get better, etc. I explained to him that the little boy would never get rid of the "disease", but that he might get better in that he might pick up some verbal skills, he might learn to be better at playing and such.
  
  The next day, Moose had a laundry list of questions, so I did what any good mom would do and I googled it. I found the answers to pretty much all of his questions. Moose said, "I can't wait until Monday so I can ask him to play with me, but I'm so afraid he won't want to play with me." I explained to him that he just has to keep asking every day because this little boy isn't used to being around other kids so it may take him a while to warm up.
  
  Monday morning came and on the way to school I asked what he was looking forward to and he said "Asking that little boy to play with me!"
  
  When I picked him up from school I asked what his favorite part of the day was. He said "Well, my least favorite part was not being able to play with that little boy because we had music today and I didn't get to see him." 

This kid melts my heart. I hope and pray he keeps all of these wonderful qualities and doesn't become transformed by the world.

to the moon and back