Because I've watched you

This weekend I saw more of Kory’s independence. I have to tell you. It is bittersweet to watch him “grow up.” And he is only 6!!!

Over the weekend, he put away his clean clothes by himself. It’s not that he magically learned where they go. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working with him to show him where his clothes go. This time, I showed him his two piles of folded, clean clothes and asked him to put them away. He might not have put them in such neat, orderly piles within his dresser drawers, but they were in the correct places. :)

He also said his prayers on his own. Every night I typically ask him, “Do you want to pray or do you want me to pray with you.” His normal response is “I don’t know the words for prayer.” We then pray together like a tag-team. A few words from mommy and a few words from Kory after being prompted with some questions.

His response this weekend was, “mommy, I can pray.” And he did so beautifully all by himself! I loved his prayer about thanking God for the summer and the pool and his friends and the wind along with our usual night prayer for “sweet dreams and good dreams but no bad dreams or scary dreams.” I love the simple prayers of children!

Then this morning, I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. He chose toast with peanut butter.

“I can do it, mommy, because I’ve watched you.”

And he did. He put the bread in the toaster. He put the peanut butter and nutella on the bread. He cleaned up his area too. All by himself!

But what caught me at that moment was his simple phrase of “because I’ve watched you.”

Wow! He knew how to use the toaster “because I’ve watched you.” He knew how to pray “because I’ve watched you.” I would hope he knew about putting away his clothes “because I’ve watched you.” But if you saw the piles of clean clothes in my own room you would know he learned that one from repetition in his own room. LOL!

What else is he learning from me “because I’ve watched you?” What are others learning from me “because I’ve watched you?” What am I learning from others “because I’ve watched you?”

One simple phrase from Kory has lead to many thoughts in my head.

“Because I’ve watched you.”