"Mom, watch this!"

As I am loving the quiet house now that the older boys are in school, I seem to have a parrot in my house. One of the biggest reasons to send Aaron to school was so that I could have concentrated time with Ethan to work on some things with his character. This is great, but he has lost his playmates that he has never known life without. So I have gladly become his playmate. The most common thing I have heard is "mom, watch this". I love to see what he thinks is cool and has discovered to do, but it is about 100 times each day! And most often it's the same thing over and over again. He has essentially become an only child during the day. I have totally forgotten what this entails. Alot of affirming with comments like "wow!" or "you are so good!" or "great job!" or "cool", all with genuine interest. Need I go on? So, I feel like a parrot being cued to say things on command based on certain things he does/says. BUT......... Having said this, I wouldn't change it for a minute! The children are the light of my life and I am so blessed to be able to spend my days teaching and training them! I get to peek in on him during quiet playtime and hear his conversations with his self and his toys, this is a precious gift.