Eye Witness

In the last week or two, Miles has matured like he's on some kind of steroids for the eager to age. SLOW DOWN, buddy. I can't even believe some of the concepts he's beginning to understand and the things he's saying. He says them as if he's fifteen. For instance, "NO faaiiirr, MOOOOM." How does he understand what "no fair" means? Things like that blow my mind. Because if you know someone before they can even speak words and you hang with them daily, you get to see all these new things, and sometimes you just can't wrap your puny mind around how much they've learned.
It's not so much the things he says, but how his voice has changed and how he's become more and more full of expressive emotion. For instance, tonight I went into my room and noticed the light and ceiling fan weren't working. Miles came in and said "let me take a look," exactly how Ryan would say it if he was about to fix something. And he was totally into it, not just mimicking what he's heard his dad say. Those little wheels are turning all the time.
He's also starting to go and do things on his own like he's never done before. Where he would normally stop and tell me he's about to do something or ask if he can, he's just going ahead with things. Not things he shouldn't do, but things like marching on into the bathroom to wash his hands after he has a snack, simply because he knows it's time.
All of this to say, it's pretty great to be an observer in the lives of your children. To do your best to teach them things, even the little things and then witness the day when they start to do as you've asked, without even giving it a second thought. It's a pretty exciting thing to be able to have this influence. Sure it's a lot of pressure sometimes, but it's also simply very cool.
I hope to watch our kids grow into a thousand things we've tried hard to instill in them. I can't wait to see how they take shape in each little person. When we've said "be kind" a million times, I wonder what ways we'll get to watch Miles treat people with respect and kindness. And when we've preached generosity another million, I wonder what ways Asher will find to give to others. I get butterflies and chills just thinkin' about it. I don't want time to speed up, it's already freaky fast, but sometimes there are things for which I say "I just can't wait." These are some of those things. I'm just so excited!
Anyway, for now I'm perfectly content witnessing the baby steps toward bigger things. There is so much to learn as we go, for both parent and child. Tonight's lesson was pretty simple, "no, you cannot touch the pee in the potty chair, it's gross." :)