Growing Up

Marshall now calls me "mom" instead of "mama." For some reason, I am particularly upset by this development. He just sounds too grown up when he speaks to me. Everything these days is in the form of a question: "Mom, what is that lady doing? Mom, when daddy come home from office? Mom, can I have brown milk at Starbucks?" He has adopted many of my commonly used words and phrases: "maybe," "actually," "I think...," "I have to organize..." or the best is when he yells loudly, "CHRIS!!" or "Riley, NO BARKING!" It is both funny (and somewhat disconcerting) to hear myself when he speaks.

Watching him play is highly entertaining. We rarely eat drive through fast food (seriously, I think he's been maybe 5 times in 2.5 years) yet the other day, I overheard him playing with cars and saying, "Porsche car go to restaurant. I'll have a small burrito, a hamburger, and a soda." I have never ordered him a soda! He croons to his "friends" (i.e. stuffed animals), making sweet little noises to them when they have owies and need hugs. Marshall still loves to read and sometimes will want the same book read 4 times in a row. I have actually hidden a couple of the books that I don't care for as much because I can't stand them anymore.

Our latest drama has been the "loud lady" at Trader Joe's. There is a boisterous woman who solicits for a children's charity and she is always outside when we go to the store. Every week she yells, "HI BABY!" to Marshall. Marshall is now frightened of her and declares almost daily, "No old Trader Joe's, mom. No loud lady. Go to new Trader Joe's." For the last couple weeks, I've either gone without Marshall or I actually have gone to a further away Trader Joe's with him. This pleased him greatly...he nodded firmly when we arrived, "no loud lady at new Trader Joe's, mom"). I feel like there is some sort of life lesson here but I don't know if I'm handling it the right way. I want to spare him the discomfort of this lady's presence but should I rearrange my life for these types of little quirks?

Our enjoyable summer carries on...