Our Budding Scientist/Engineer

I love that Ethan has a lot of papers for me to look at every day. It means he's learning. Earlier this week he brought home Scholastic book orders and told me that he'd circled those items he wanted. "Yeah, they have a cool microscope!" Curiosity got me earlier tonight when he reminded me the book orders were due Friday and that he'd circled another one,"a dinosaur one." I wasn't surprised. He had circled the Star Wars pack, the Lego pack, a book on global warming -- and the microscope, and Guiness Book of World Records. That's my boy! Before heading to bed he said,"Mom, I really want that microscope." I asked him to consider saving and waiting a little longer so we could buy him a really nice one. He said that was a good idea. Most boys his age want video games...he wants a microscope.

Reminds me of ~2 months ago I went to Deseret Industries to look at their books. They had some items in a glass case and Ethan quickly pointed out,"Mom, look at those telescopes! There's one for $25!" He was so excited about those two telescopes and the glass chess set. A far cry from about 3 years ago (?)...he and I were up late one weekend and I said it was time for bed. When I headed upstairs he was sitting on Kiana's bed looking quietly out the window. I thought this would be some good bonding time and went in to sit beside him. "What'cha thinking about?" "Oh, nothing. Just looking at the stars." "They sure are pretty. So what do you think you want to be when you grow up?" I'm thinking I'm really bonding now...good mommy moment. "Ummmm, work at Walmart." Wo. Stop the press. HUH!?!?! "What?" "Yeah. Work at WalMart. They have a guy there that cleans their floors." Two things came to mind: 1) I needed to steer this in a different direction, and 2)I wondered what goes on in those little observant minds. The fact he noticed a janitor there. "Yes. They do. That is a very important job. It's important to keep stores clean and safe for people. But I thought you wanted to be an engineer and build things like both of your grandpa's." He sat there for a moment,"Yeah, but I could still work at WalMart."

Today I am grateful for dreams. Kids have them, and I think adults forget them.

While we spend our time teaching kids all about life, they teach us what life is all about.