He Gives Me Flowers

Outside the front of our flat there is a bush with winter-blooming yellow flowers.  Jayce picks them and brings them to me.  He does it all of the time.

We use the back door to go to and from school so we don't necessarily pass the bush every single day, just a few times a week.  Jayce brought me my flowers the other day after he came home from swimming and said this.

"Mom, when you're not with me, I pick you lots of flowers because it's a surprise.  But if you're with me, then I just get you one, since you won't be surprised."

Apparently there isn't an option to not pick flowers, there's only the "she'll be surprised" or "she won't be surprised," but flowers will definitely be picked.

The funny thing about the flower picking is that this isn't a brand new thing.  In the springtime there are tiny daisies that pop up all over the grass, (probably some type of weed, but I like them,) and there are always a few dried ones tucked away in my pockets because Jayce gives them to me all of the time.  This was particularly true before he had his scooter and was just walking to school every day.  I loved it.

I've said before how Jayce is a really thoughtful little boy.  I try to note the occasions where it really stands out, like my love note and the time he sang to me.  

There also was something that he said to Chris a few months ago on an afternoon when they had gone to play basketball.  Throughout the course of the conversation Jayce admitted that he hadn't wanted to go play basketball that day, but that he went because he knew Chris was excited and didn't want to hurt his feelings. 

Oh gosh, Jayce.  It is far too early in your life for you to be doing things that you don't want to do for the sake of other people's feelings, particularly your parents' feelings.  

We had this conversation with him that day, along with a reminder that he can always be honest with us, even if he thinks we might not like what he has to say.  

Even though I know that Jayce is a really sweet little boy, I always feel a little surprised when he does something like this that seems very above and beyond for his age.  Chris is a great husband, really great, but Jayce didn't learn the flower thing from him.  Chris is "special occasion flower-giver," not a "no reason but because I love you flower-giver."  And Jayce has been picking those daisies for me in the springtime since he was four years old.

I think that we are so accustomed to taking credit in some form for the various nuances of our kids' personalities, (he has my attention to detail, she has your temper…) that the ways that they are so just so themselves always seem to catch me a little bit off guard.  I love discovering these things and watching them bloom.  It is one of my favorite parts of being a mom.

And lest you think that I am painting a picture of my son as a perfect child, yesterday I turned off an episode of Ninjago before school because we reached that crucial point when they needed to actually get their shoes on.  Jayce came into the kitchen where I was filling up their water bottles and shot me with his Nerf gun.  So there's that.

That's totally Chris.  And me.  And Jayce.