His Brilliance Recognized

    One day in class, the children were given an in-class assignment. They were all given a choice of which color construction paper and to find this color in the classroom. The rest of the children found their colors in a matter of seconds, but my son was starting to struggle. The teacher saw it, the other students saw it, he was beginning to freak out, and I understand that pressure. The facial expressions he makes when he doesn't get something that he thinks he should, I just wish I was there to whisper to him to calm down, breath and focus, almost as if I wasn't there. Finally when the teacher was about to help him, he realized that he was brilliant. He turned around and smiled all in one motion, and put the little square up to his arm and the teacher said that she wanted to cry with a celebration but held back. See the square was brown, now when this happened the rest of the kids didn't understand why he was correct until she explained it to them. They didn't get that he had to think out of the box, I smiled because I noticed that he has begun to figure out a very important lesson, thinking beyond what he sees to find his answers.

    One day he asks me, “Dad are you proud of me?” I had to catch my breath and hold back some monster tears when looking at his little four year old frame. I said, “Of course, I am very proud of you little man.” I wondered why did he need to hear that, he came in for a hug, and for the longest time he just wanted to cuddle with daddy. Something that my daughter does but not necessarily my son, he usually comes at me with jump kicks and screaming wrestling moves. So while this is going on, I tell him about how smart he is, and how beautiful he is, he smiles and tells me he loves me. I tell you, I understand why those emotional mothers start crying over every little thing.

    I tell him about how he is smart by giving examples, like the class room exercise and his eyes got big, like I was there watching him. I told him in great detail about what happened and he smiled, I told him that, it was brilliant how he figured that out all by himself. That I was proud of him for not giving up. I told him about how I love how he asks me questions all the time, and they are important ones, on how to act, and the right and wrong things to say to people. I tell him that is good to tell the people you care about that you love them, and he does. That's a cool little dude I got.