Reidle Bead is Growing Up

For months now Ben and I keep talking about how grown up Reid is becoming. You really can sense the transition into big kid (with a few preschool style tantrums and whiny attitudes every now and again). But earlier this month, he really transitioned. He lost his first tooth. 

It was a roller coaster of emotions. When he first felt it wiggle he was so excited. I had a babysitter over that day (it was during my week-from-hell-all-day-morning-sickness), and he very proudly told her all about loose teeth (they did a week long unit study on teeth in preschool earlier this year). He came out of the bathroom beaming. Then I crushed his little soul. I told him it takes a week or two for loose teeth to fall out, and the flood gate of tears started coming. It was so strange how his excitement turned to fear so quickly. Silly boy thought he couldn't eat anything until it was gone.  

The same scene repeated itself the night Ben finally wanked it out. He seemed all excited at the thought of finally loosing it (and having the tooth fairy visit), but then it was gone and in its place was blood. Tears. Tears. Tears. We finally sobered him up enough for the above photo. Don't you love how huge his belly is at the end of every night? Flat in the morning -- huge puff at night. Repeat daily.  

Anyway, there is another Reid story I wanted to jot down. After a week long Spring Break he was ready to go back to school. He came through the door that afternoon just beaming. "Mommy, do you want to hear something exciting that happened today?"

"You got your bunny basket?" I enthusiastically replied. 

"Well yeah, but that's not it. This is even awesomer." 

I was all ears. What on Earth could be better than a bag full of Easter candy, a week after Easter had come and gone (remember, their final day before Spring Break was cancelled because of the snow, so their Easter goodies were long forgotten ten days later). 

"There's this lady on the bus ..." (his bus only has elementary kids, so at the most she's a 5th grader, but sure, we'll let that lady comment slide), "... and even though she is rude to me sometimes, and she didn't say please, I gave her a piece of my bunny basket candy when she asked for it!"

Weeks later, I still can't get over how excited he was that he choose to be nice to someone who was mean to him. He went on and on about all the other kids he shared his candy with. I have no doubt he was Mr Popular on that short ride home, perhaps that explained a bit of his euphoric high. He still had plenty of candy and was eager to share with his sisters as well. 

I asked him if his teacher told him to be sure to share and he said, "No. I just want to share because that's a nice thing to do and it makes me happy."

Later I asked him who taught him to be nice even when people aren't nice back and he slowly lifted his finger and pointed at me. I was kind of surprised. I really thought he'd say it was a lesson they learned at Church or something, but he told me "you're always telling us that."