Hi, new stack

 Today was a weird day. Far from my normal goings on.

Jeremiah, who has been sick with a back-to-school cold, woke up around 2 a.m. and climbed in our bed. Derrick gave him hugs and kisses and I got up and walked him back to bed and climbed in with him (he has a queen size bed, which is a lot for a 5-year-old, but perfect for a 5-year-old who wants nothing more than he wants cuddles when he’s trying to sleep.)

A few minutes before 4 a.m. I woke up to Jeremiah sniffling profusely and wiping his nose on his sleeves. Kicking myself for not re-dosing his cold medicine when he woke up earlier, I stepped out of the room to grab him tissues and the medicine.

When I came back into the room he was coughing. I gave him the tissues to cough up the phlegm, only to be surprised when he coughed up blood, specifically a blood clot. Shocked, I turned on the flashlight on my phone and saw my son’s face and arms covered in blood. (And many splotches on his blankets.) The dude had a bloody nose! And in the dark we both missed that. Sheesh. Oops.

After we got that taken care of, we were too awake. We cuddled and chatted and eventually I gave in and agreed to play a game on my phone while he watched for a little while. We finally fell back to sleep around 6 a.m.

Astoria woke up at 7 and immediately climbed in the bed on me. After a few wiggly minutes, she got down and struggled to open the bedroom door and she turned on the bedroom light (ugggggghhh) so I was up and Jeremiah woke up.

A few minutes after we settled in the living room together, my mom texted to let me know my Uncle Al had passed away around 6:30 a.m. I had plans to cut his hair tonight, and I had been glad I would get to do that for him and get to say goodbye, and now I wouldn’t be doing that. 

Derrick was working from home, so I went in the office to interrupt his work and let him know. Jeremiah came in with his tablet to let my know he had made me a video. This goofball sweet little kid had vlogged, haha. I have never seen him do or say anything like it before, but my little son made a video of him looking into the camera and saying, “Hi, guys. It’s me, Jeremiah, again. *waves* *deep sigh* Today my mom uncle just died. That. So her is so sad right now inside my dad office. That. *blows 7 kisses* I love you, my mom uncle. *blows 14 kisses*”

No stutter. No tics. No getting stuck at all. Clear words, for the most part. Amazing. Who is this kid? I have never seen him do this sort of thing. I loved seeing what his cute little brain can do and come up with. Obviously we are limiting YouTube even more around here now. I don’t need this kid starting a family vlog, haha.

I got the laundry folded and put in the piles I usually separate: underwear, pajamas, to-hang-up and play clothes. I sent Jeremiah with his pajama stack into his bedroom to put them in his dresser, but I was still folding things. When he came back in the living room, he passed me and quietly said, “Hi, new stack.” to the clothes of his I had folded while he was in the other room.

It’s just a small thing, but it made me laugh so much. Today I saw a new Jeremiah. Today my tiny kid was a funny little boy who has grown in intelligence and wit so much lately. I just love him.

At one point Jeremiah asked if we would approve the download of a new game on the tablet. We said no, and I don’t remember how it came to it but Derrick was saying something about how we’ll need to delete a game to make room for anything new, and then somehow it became (I think because of pushback from Jeremiah? Some sort of feistiness?)  a comment about maybe we should just delete all his games.

I got chatting with Derrick about other things, the online schooling he is working on, my uncle, the laundry. Derrick went back into the office and I went back to folding the laundry. Suddenly my very humbled, sweet 5-year-old handed me the tablet, and explained he deleted all the games but left Disney+ for his sister.

The way my heart fell, I tell you. I immediately said, “Oh sweetheart, we were kidding!” and swept him into a hug. Jeremiah face contorted and he just started weeping. Ugh. I teared up a bit with him. I kept repeating, “Oh you sweet thing. Oh my sweet boy.” This little guy had deleted everything he had been working on all year. The game levels he had proudly completed. The new characters he had proudly earned. His accomplishments on those games were such a source of pride for him. My heart completely broke as I hugged him while he cried.

I asked if he thought he was following instructions? He tearfully nodded. Oh my sweet, sweet boy.

Derrick heard and came in. I explained what happened and Derrick redownloaded the games Jeremiah had been most proud of, and they were indeed erased, he’d be starting over.

My incredibly sweet child said, “That’s okay. Me think it will be 6 days until me get the snake guy again.”, referring to the most recent character he had earned …which had taken several months to earn.

Jeremiah is an incredibly loving, funny, enjoyable kid. (He’s also stubborn and violent and malicious and there’s a moment where you can see the switch flip and he gets this eyes-half-closed smirk and you know you’ve lost him and he thinks, and tells you, he can do anything he wants and “it’s not up to you.” We are working on it.)

I love these two kids so, so much. This afternoon Jeremiah said he wished he wasn’t born yet so he can still be a little baby for me, haha. I explained to him that although I’m a little sad that I don’t have my tiny babies anymore, I absolutely love watching him and Astoria grow up. I love seeing how much they’re learning and really seeing them come into their own. It’s fascinating and delightful.