Things have been rather dull at Casa del Stoddard lately. This is a thankful change from my weekend of cold water hell, but it makes for bad blogging. Apologies.
The biggest development recently has been with Sam. He now shows empathy. I realized this the other night, when, while watching A Bug’s Life for the first time, Sam looked at me and said, “Daddy, I hope they make those grasshoppers cry.” And, sure enough, when the bird came out of the tree, Sam cheered as Hopper et. al. ran for their lives.
It occurred to me later that night exactly what had happened. My son is a four year old ball of emotions now, and he’s just starting to learn how to deal with them all - right in time for him to go to school with a bunch of complete strangers. Excellent.
Aidan & Noah, I think, are aware of Sam’s new feelings. In the last few days, every action of theirs has been an attempt to elicit a reaction from him. Sam builds a train track, Noah becomes Godzilla and stomps the bridges into oblivion. Sam goes into his room to play. Aidan follows and stands just inside the door while Sam screams at him to get out.
And cue the next ten years. . .
