After his fantastic summer (courtesy of his mom) that I may or may not remember to tell you about at some point, M. Edium is back at school, currently wrapping up his second week of second grade. It's been going well -- for him, at least. There's a new kid in his class this year, and his first week did not go well.

On Wednesday, he wasn't sure where to wait for his dad to pick him up, so M. Edium stayed with him until his dad showed up and saw him safely into his car.

On Thursday, the new kid brought his favorite book in to share with the class, and his favorite page got torn out. M. Edium was the one who suggested eBay to find replacements for out-of-print books, and offered to bring in tape from home, since the new kid's home hadn't been unpacked yet.

Friday was the worst day of all, when the new kid broke his glasses. M. Edium was the one who volunteered to show him to the nurse's office, and then came home and asked us if he could buy his friend a new pair. On top of everything else, the new kid's parents are recently divorced, and he was worried about the replacement cost. M. Edium was heartbroken for him.

As you may have seen if you follow me or Trash on Twitter, M. Edium's favorite stuffed animal for years, Caddy the caterpillar, went missing earlier this week. We had to assume it was in the house somewhere, because I remembered giving it to him the night we got back from the cabin just a couple of weeks before. So at the very least we knew it wasn't in a hotel room in Indiana this time. But we just couldn't find it anywhere in the house, even after a complete stuffy-census of his overcrowded bunk bed, and there were enough troubling gaps in the Without a Trace whiteboard timeline we constructed that I thought it best to see about getting a replacement. I won't bore you with the details of how we found a duplicate on eBay (let me just say that the seller's listing of it as a centipede rather than a caterpillar would have thwarted less determined shoppers) and put in an exorbitant top bid the day before the end of the auction. Trash told him the truth about this, of course. Then that night, my parents called to report that Caddy had been found in M. Edium's sleeping bag from a previous overnight, and after we made a Knuffle Bunny-style run to retrieve him in the gathering dusk, M. Edium's relief was sweetened by the fact that Caddy might be getting a twin in a few days. But then the next day we saw that our exorbitant bid had been beaten, which told us some other little boy or girl somewhere was missing a Caddy that still hadn't turned up. We asked M. Edium if it wouldn't be better for this other child to have one Caddy than for him to have two, and he nodded violently and without reservation. He couldn't stand the thought of being without a Caddy, but nor could he stand the thought of someone else being without theirs.

And then when I woke him up for school this morning, the very first thing he said to me was, "Good morning, and happy anniversary."

This is our kid. This is the kid my wife has been raising. We've been married 21 years today, and she can still surprise me. I always assumed any kid we had would have entered the jerk phase by the time he was eight no matter what we did. I'm pretty sure that when I was eight, I was a jerk. But Trash is making sure our kid remains a kind-hearted, empathetic, understanding, thoughtful human being instead. I'm incredibly proud of both of them.

Happy anniversary, Trash. You amaze me every day. And M. Edium, I know you think you understand how incredible your mom is, but someday you'll appreciate it even more. I'll make sure of that.

5 Comments:

This is a lovely story - you have raised one hell of a good kid.

By  Helen, at September 14, 2012 at 8:29 PM  

Trash has a twitter account? Does anyone know her handle? It's for a friend...

By  Anonymous, at September 14, 2012 at 8:59 PM  

That brought tears to my eyes! Happy anniversary to one lucky husband and father!

Lora

By  Anonymous, at September 15, 2012 at 2:35 AM  

My son will be 21 soon, and he never did hit a "jerk" phase. We still really enjoy spending time together. It never stops being a wonderful feeling. Congrats!

By  Marchelle, at September 15, 2012 at 3:39 PM  

I remembered your name from TWOP YEEEEARS ago, and I just googled it and came across this entry. And it's lovely and super great so thanks, I'm glad I got to read it. -Annie

By  Anonymous, at August 3, 2013 at 2:53 AM  

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