Today is Theo's birthday. Last night, under the cover of darkness, Jon went around and tied little streamers to various pieces of Theo's goods. This was no blown out affair, rather kind of a ragtag covert operation. Theo didn't seem to notice the streamers trailing off the back of his breakfast chair, but when Jon sent him up to brush his teeth, he came back downstairs with the brush gripped in a fist, streamer hanging off of it, a sweet cheshire grin on his face. Then he saw his lunchbox, his raincoat, his backback, his sweatshirt. Each discovery brought that flash of white and a devilish glow in his eye. As it was raining out, I assumed that Theo would de-streamer his stuff before he headed out to walk to school, but he was having none of that. He donned all of the pieces proudly and then hurried off down the sidewalk, trying to stay out of the puddles. It was no use, the streamers on his shoes were quickly drenched and bedraggled. No matter. He still loved them. As we approached Expo he saw a friend on the steps and quickly bounded off to greet him, streamers flying behind him.
Two hours later I was walking through the halls of Expo to volunteer in Eli's class. I passed Theo coming out of his math room. All of his outerwear regalia was shut up in his locker, but sure enough, the dirty beat up streamers were still trailing of his shoes, and just this little touch was putting quite the stagger into his stride. There is no doubt that this child of mine enjoys the opportunity to feel special.
No comments:
Post a Comment