Gumption

On our way into Panera for lunch today, Lucas held the door open for me pushing the stroller, his dad and a very, very tall gentleman who was right behind us. As I went through, I said, "Thank you very much, Lucas." As the tall gentleman went through he said, "Thank you very much, Sir."

Abel and I stepped to the side to let the very tall gentleman pass us and to wait for Lucas. He practically ran past us and tapped the very tall gentleman on the thigh, saying, "Excuse me! Excuse me!"

"Yes," the man said as he leaned way down to Lucas's level.

"You can just call me Lucas," my son replied.

"Okay, Lucas, thank you very much," chuckled the man.

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Lucas was at the park for hours this afternoon. First with his dad, then with me. About an hour into his second trip, Nathaniel got very fussy and needed to be fed. I'm not very comfortable breastfeeding in public anyway but I didn't even have so much as a blanket with me. As we're literally five houses from the park, I thought we could all just run home, I'd feed Nathaniel and we'd be back in less than 20 minutes (the babe is a very fast eater!). Of course Lucas as not so happy with this plan. I explained that we'd be back really soon, I just needed to feed Nathaniel. He asked, "Why can't someone just watch after me?"

There were about a million people at the park including no less than four moms I knew well and would totally have been comfortable with. But for some reason I didn't want to ask for help. In thinking over the whole situation now, I realize that is just silly: had any of them asked me, I would have agreed to watch their child or children in a heartbeat. I guess I just don't like to ask for help.

Luckily for Lucas, he has no such problems. He marched right over to one mom and asked her, "Can you please look after me? Mama has to feed baby Nathaniel." Of course she and another mom standing right next to her both looked over at me and I explained that I just needed to run home to feed the baby and would be back in 20 minutes or less. If they were planning to stay that long, I asked, would either of them mind keeping an eye on Lucas?

Of course, both agreed.

Nathaniel and I walked home and were back at the park in no time.

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At dinner tonight, I asked Lucas what his favorite thing was about playing at the park.

"I. Like. Playing. With. Big. Kids."

(Seriously, he said it just like that, as though he knew I was going to blog about it!)

"Why do you like about playing with big kids?" I asked.

"Because they are mighty and fighty just like me."

It's true. Lucas loves to play really rough and generally the bigger kids are into that, too. Plus, when he's wrestling with someone bigger than him, I figure the other kid can handle himself and don't tell Lucas to stop or to be careful. So bring it on, big kids! (But watch out, because my little buddy is one tough guy!)


*Don't forget to enter my $50 giveaway in honor of reaching 500 posts! Also, if you have a tween girl in your life and live in the DC-area, head over to Out by Ten to enter the giveaway for a set of tickets to attend Rosalind Wiseman's Girl World Tour event.


Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!