The Possibilities are Endless

When tucking my 3 year old son into bed the other night, we were talking about his bedtime story. He loves the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osbourne and has 10 different books on CD that he listens to as he falls asleep. I also read him a story at bedtime, but he likes to have something on when he falls asleep. I can understand, I'm the same way. That night he decided to listen to Midnight on the Moon.

As I was tucking him in, I told him something that truly shocked him. I told him that he could be anything he wanted to be when he grew up. I explained that when he gets bigger, if he really tries hard, is a good listener, eats all his veggies and does well in school, he could be an astronaut, a doctor, an athlete, a firefighter, a police officer or whatever he wanted. His eyes grew very wide and he asked, "I can? Really, Mommy?" I assured him it was true and that I would support whatever he wanted to be. His reply, "Oh great Mommy, because I really want to be an astronaut!" He then jabbered on about how he can't wait to get bigger and how he's going to eat all his food so he can keep growing faster and faster so that when he's bigger he can fly in a rocket ship to the moon! He also mentioned that he'd like to visit Mars and Jupiter because it's the biggest planet. My reaction, "HUH??? You're three, how do you know Jupiter is the biggest planet??!" His response, "You told me, Mommy." Oh yeah, I taught him that. I forgot telling him about the planets, but I'm glad he remembered.

The point being, isn't it amazing how endless our possibilities are in this great nation? Each person truly has endless possibilities. I think we forget that as we get older. If we put our mind to it and stick it out, we can do anything. I love how children really see that they have a whole world full of opportunities in front of them and they aren't afraid to go after them.

The other point, kids grow to fast. When Nic mentioned that he's going to grow as fast as he can, I got teary-eyed. I asked him to please not grow too fast. The first 3 years have gone by too fast already. I'm sure most parents can understand how conflicted you feel when thinking about how fast your child is growing. On one hand, I'm so excited about his future and the possibilities in front of him. I'm excited to help him learn and grow and become a great man one day. On the other hand, I'm so very sad to see how fast the time is going and wish sometimes that I could just freeze time. Hey..maybe I should get working on that. After all, nothing is impossible. But first, I'm going to go upstairs right now and give him one more kiss.

Nic ready for bed: