bear : äiti, when you were little what did you want to be when you growed up?
me : i wanted to be lots of things.
bear : i want to be an astronaut.
me : i wanted to be a baker, a teacher and a painter.
bear : did you want to be a parent.
me : oh, yeah. i’ve always wanted to be an äiti. do you want to be a parent one day?
bear : no. i won’t have time. i’ll be in the rocket.
me : you can have kids and work outside the home.
bear : yeah, that’s true. being a parent is easy.

this is what our dinner conversation sounded like the other night. i wanted to laugh so hard at the end, but held it together. i didn’t want to offend the budding space traveller! it’s all that much more hilarious, because bear told dear hubby the other night, that he wanted to be a stay-at-home-dad, which is pretty unusual, but cool. he often talks about wanting to be a dad and about getting married.

growing up is hard to do. it’s a tremendous amount of work; physically, emotionally and cognitively. lion is raging through a massive growth spurt. his vocabulary is exploding, he’s complaining about his knees hurting and he eats like a horse. the last point is kinda surprising, as he’s still such a teeny dude. the world is still so vast that his oblivion is endearing to watch. his needs are simple to meet

bear though, is learning more about the world. the injustices like war and hunger and poverty are big topics. discussing war with a kid who keeps asking why is depressing. “why don’t they just want to get along and be nice to each other?”, “why are their guns and weapons?”, “why is there war in africa, but not here? will war come to canada?” oh boy, these are super tough questions to answer. i have started to explain and remind him that he is fortunate to have a home, to have food, to have a bed and to have toys. these are basic things he can relate to and hearing there are kids without toys, shocks him and then brings on more why questions. questions, i try to answer honestly.

watching the boys grow is so bittersweet. i know i have said a zillion times, but it is so true.
gah…