Oh, Charlie

Sometimes I find the most difficult thing about parenting is accepting that each of my children is a unique individual -- not a carbon copy of his siblings or his parents.  Kids go through phases and do things that make us worry, and all you can do is love them and have faith that, in the end, all will be well.

This morning, like many mornings, Charlie begged to not have to go to school.  He climbed into his bed and said he wasn't going.  Couldn't he just stay home?  Finally, Mike got him down and loaded him into the car, not before Charlie tucked a dollar bill from his Christmas stash into his pocket, saying that if he had to go to school he was going to buy himself a lunch (it should be noted that Charlie goes to school from 8-11 AM, so no lunch is served).

When I went to pick him up, he ran to me with a huge smile on his face, telling me that it was kind of the worst day ever (his usual description of his school day).  He had bumped his head after recess.  The highlight, however, was that he bought himself two chocolate milks at breakfast time (Charlie has never been to the cafeteria before, let alone eaten breakfast at school).  He got them all by himself.  He told me that he drank one right away, and was planning on giving the other one to Sam, but got really, really thirsty at snack time and decided to drink that one too.

Charlie has decided that tomorrow he would like to bring his 20 dollar bill to school so that he can he can buy 40 chocolate milks and share them with the poor people who are really thirsty and hungry.  Oh, Charlie. I love him so.