Flying Solo with My Favorite Little Man!

This week I was able to spend some time alone with my favorite little man-Gareth. Because we got pregnant with Audrey so quickly after Gareth’s birth—and I suck at being pregnant and doing life among the living—I’ve not had tons of time where it was just him and me. During our week I notice some interesting things that set Gareth apart from the other two little Simmons'.

**He missed the girls terribly. He moped around the house, and kept asking where they were. At lunch he sighed deeply and said he wanted to only eat lunch with Cilia and Audrey.

**He is careful and able to contain his excitement better than the girls. We went to the grocery store to get a few things, and he pushed around the little kid shopping cart. We had to stop letting Cecilia do this because she rammed into displays, hit other people’s carts and ran over little old ladies trying to pick out produce. But Gareth took his time and concentrated on what he was doing. When others entered our aisle, he slowed down and moved over. With a little prompting he would say excuse me and continue on. He only ran into something once (when he was looking at the wheel of the cart to watch it role). IT WAS GREAT!

**He is super compassionate. When Audrey was upset at the beach—which was a lot of the time—Gareth would stop playing with his cars or trains and come over to help. He would try to talk to her or hold her hand or would bring her a cup. Once he even brought her a train to hold which for Gareth is like letting her have the keys to his new car to take for a spin.

**This morning he woke up around 6, so we decided to get outside and watch the sunrise together. We got a blanket, his bear and I took my Bible. We snuggled down and sat together for a while looking at the sky and talking about where the moon was. Then I read the creation story and we talked about it. I asked him, “Gareth who made the moon?” He replied, “Garbet!”—that is how he says his name. “No…who?” “God.” He replied with a cheeky grin, looking up at me from the corner of his eyes. He answered that way with all my queries about who created this and that…most of the time he said he did, a few times he gave his dad some credit, and once when I asked him who created the beach he said “Peoples!”

**Lastly, I think he is my bravest kid. His name means Brave, and I saw that come out over the past week. Don’t get me wrong, both girls are bolder than he is. Audrey would run out onto the beach and into the water and if you didn’t stop her, she would keep going. She doesn’t seem to know fear. Gareth does. The sound of the waves, the size of the ocean, the height of the big blue slide at Mcdonald's, the chaos of a dog being right in his face and running around his legs. He gets that all these things are bigger than him and could hurt him…but he tries to interact with them in spite of his fear. He gets in the water, he goes down the slide, and he (after a day or so) sneaks up to a sleeping dog, reaches around a corner and tentatively pets him for a minute—and walks away tall! That is bravery. He might not be bold, but he doesn’t let his fear get the last word. He moves past it and jumps into the ocean with both feet.