We went to MOPS today for the first time in about a month. I had long ago decided to give up on Moppets, the childcare provided there, for the time being, since one, Matthias screams and screams every time and ends up hanging out with me upstairs anyway, and two, I thought I'd be kind to the volunteers and stop expecting them to devote such a large chunk of their time to my screaming child, along with trying to juggle the other children who were moved to tears by Matthias.
He sat nicely with me most of the time. Toward the end, when we were doing our craft, he spent some time playing with his little friend from our Lutheran group. "Gunny," two years old, was gesturing wildly to Matthias to follow him, and Matthias just didn't get it. What a difference six months can make, I thought.
For the past couple weeks I have felt like Matthias has been on a "plateau," one of many he has experienced. He has known his colors for a couple weeks and all his body parts for a few months, and knows a few of his shapes, too. He also "teases" me when I ask him to show me a color. I will say, "green." I see his eyes scan the green, crinkle up with glee, and point to the blue. He looks at me, squinting and smiling the biggest cheese smile as if to say, "I'm a funny little man, Mommy!"
When it was time for prayers this evening, I told him we would pray. He immediately folded his hands, but then thought better of it and unfolded them. I continued, "Dear God, Thank you for today..." and Matthias interrupted me by singing, "La, la, la!" He wanted me to sing. Usually that's after prayers. I decided to compromise with him and sang The Lord's Prayer. He seemed satisfied. After I was done, he sang what appeared to be some words from a song I couldn't make out. I sang him "Zacchaeus," and he did his "action" for it (pointing up into the tree).
Finally, I asked him if he'd like me to sing about kitties. Why yes, of course! Anything to do with kitties is hugely popular with this fellow after my own heart. I sang "Kitty, Kitty," a song I thought up when I was in kindergarten. It was an immediate success, and he sang "Tiddeh, Tiddeh," almost on key, to tell me he wanted to hear it a couple more times.
The bedtime routine was rounded out by a generous cheek-to-cheek snuggle, my favorite. He was probably wondering why my cheek was wet. I'm not one given to sentimentality or fuzzy phrases, but there is one about how being a mother is to have a part of your heart walking around outside your body. That phrase came to me just then as so true. This little guy has my heart in a way that I never thought possible.
