my little guy

The Lion and I do almost everything together. While I was making dinner last night, he scrambled to get into his sous chef pants to "help" me. He would rather go to Wal-Mart with me than stay home and watch a movie while Daddy works. He is my shadow. My right-hand man.


It makes me so sad to think that one day he will need his personal space. That, in other words, he will not want to be caught dead in Wal-Mart with his mom. Now he will spontaneously hug me in Wal-Mart and loudly proclaim, "You are my best friend, Mommy!"

I know this is a song I have sung before. And I was ruminating on this sad fact of life yet again while painting the banisters yesterday and Jonathan kept humming "Cats in the Cradle." I know. I know. I'm being maudlin. But I cannot help it. It's who I am. I dwell on things. (Have you met my mother?)

So last night Jonathan took Blue to dance class and I tried to sneak off and read in bed for a little while, hoping the Lion would continue playing downstairs. My little guy found me after about ten seconds, and he came into my room and climbed up onto the bed with me.

"This is a nice bed, Mommy! I love this bed! It's so nice! Oh, look! Your ... your ... pillows match your blanket!" I tried to smile and say, "Mm-hm" from time to time, but I was trying to read Watchmen, which Jonathan got in his Easter basket.


Then Lion leaned over my shoulder, breathing loudly in my ear. "Is that a scary book?" I think the pictures must have looked pretty scary to him.

"Yes, Lion," I told him. "This is a very scary book."

So he ran off to his room and came back a moment later with his scariest book. It's a Halloween book my mom gave him last year called Ten Timid Ghosts.


The Lion thinks the witch is scary. So we never read this book at bedtime. But last night, curled up beside me, he was feeling particularly brave. So he "read" it beside me, telling me about the action on every page. The scariest page is an illustration of the witch wearing a vampire mask.  Lion yelled, "Look! Mommy, look! This is very scary. The witch is dressed up as a scary grandpa ... grandpa ... grandpire."