Letting go

Usually Fred drops Rion off at school and I pick him up, but today I had the morning off from work so I dropped him off. Fred has been telling me for weeks how hard it is to drop him off. "They just want us to drop him off at the playground and let him play until the bell rings," he told me. "I'm just not sure about that." Oh, he's fine I told him. Then the other day Fred was going to walk him to the playground, but Rion told him, "I know where to go," and was off. "See," I told Fred, "he's fine." This morning we arrived at school and I got out of the car to give Rion a hug before he ran off. I told him to have a good day and he bolted for the playground. Halfway there, he turned, smiled big and gave me one last wave. I waved back and my heart melted. Every time I thought about that moment today I got a big smile on my face. My little boy has gotten so big.

A different world

Over the weekend we had a rummage sale. While setting up my mom came across some Smurf glasses we had as kids. She asked me if I wanted them and of course I said yes. Tonight at dinner I had the Smurf glasses out and Rion was looking at one of them. Jokey Smurf was on it and he was laughing because another Smurf had opened his exploding present. I told Rion that the Smurfs was a cartoon that was on when I was little. I told him Jokey Smurf was always giving Smurfs exploding presents as a joke. Then I thought about what I just said and quickly added that exploding presents weren't funny at all. Every once in awhile Fred and I will come across something like that from our youth. Things, like an exploding animated present, were never given a second thought by my generation when we were young. Now I don't think something like that would even make it to television. All of our children were born after 9/11 and the world they will grow up in is undoubtedly different than the one I grew up in. For as long as my kids have been alive we have been at war. Wouldn't it be nice if they could know a world at peace?