Last Friday, Jack attended Ninja Night at his Tae Kwon Do school. They had advertised the event in class, and Jack had been asking me for about a week and a half if he could go. Brad and I weren't completely sold on the idea, as this would be Jack's first drop-off event. No parents present. And a late night - the party didn't end until 9:30 pm. I waited a few days to see if the excitement of the idea would wear off for him, and it didn't.
I finally made it up there and signed him up to attend. That night, he said that he didn't want to go without us, and that he'd rather stay home. I didn't push the issue or make it a big deal that now he had to go, I just tried to talk about how much fun it would be. The next day was Ninja Night.
When I picked him up at the end of the day, I mentioned that we had to go home to get ready for Ninja Night. I asked him what he wanted to dress up as, and he said he wanted to be a Ninja Turtle. He had an outfit all planned out - one that consisted of green pajama pants from half of a Buzz Lightyear pajama set, and a Green Lantern pajama shirt turned backwards:) I already knew that I was going to give him a pair of Ninja Turtle pajamas I'd bought and hidden awhile ago, but I just wanted to see what he had planned. I told him I thought maybe I had some Ninja Turtle jammies he could wear, and he was so excited!
"You mean all green, like the turtle shell? Nothing else? No words? Really? All green? Just like a turtle?"
"Yeah, I think so. Let me go check, and I'll be right back."
When I came back downstairs with the all-green, true-to-form Ninja Turtle pajamas, he just about exploded with excitement. It was so stinkin' cute.
He got dressed as quickly as I've ever seen him do, and we were off. He was a champ. When I dropped him off, he didn't seem upset at all. I was so proud of my brave boy.
His sister, on the other hand, was very upset to leave "My Jack" behind. She cried real tears and everything. When I asked her what she wanted to have for dinner on the way home, she whimpered, "TopKick," the name of Jack's Tae Know Do school:)
Brad and I got a chance to realize how easy it was when we only had one baby to feed and play with and put to bed. The house was so quiet... We don't remember it that way, as being easy, but ohmygoodness - when we only have one at a time...
Anyhow, we had a great evening with Hannah Bear, and the whole time, I couldn't help but wonder how Jack was doing at his first event without Mom and Dad. No one from the school had called, asking us to pick him up, so we took that as a good sign:)
We decided I would stay home with a sleeping Hannah while Brad would go pick Jack up from his party. He was sad that he hadn't gotten to see Jack before the party, so it only seemed right. I was sure that Jack would come home and be carried in by Brad, sound asleep. Boy, was I wrong!
He was clearly on a party-high because Jack came bounding in the door, hungry and ready to eat. We gave him some milk and yogurt and listened as he rambled on about all the fun he'd had. He told us all about the haunted bus and the costumes he'd seen.
I made a comment about how I thought he'd be asleep when he got home.
And do you know what that smart, little man said to me? As matter-of-factly as possible?
"It's a short ride."
{My, how he's growing up...}
