I got to Sofiya’s today and something new happened. She gave me a project Walker did at school. (He colored a picture of a pizza with orange and yellow crayon.) It was so wonderful, I almost cried. It’s not that it’s his best work ever — you should see the awesome Valentine’s Day cards he made with crayon, pen, and marker — but it’s his FIRST school project.

You see, all the big kids have folders on the wall and each day, there are projects in the folder waiting for the parents to take home (pictures, masks, and other crazy things).

Walker adores to draw. It’s been his favorite activity the last few weeks. Many times throughout the day, he’ll go to the table and pat his highchair and demand his crayons and paper. We have a plethora of paper options to choose from including tablets, notebooks, cards, letters, instruction manuals or whatever else he can find. He’ll sit for long spans of time and scribble away. He’ll make small lines, big circles, soft and hard scribbles. Most of the time he uses his right hand but sometimes, he’ll put crayons in both hands and go to town. I love watching him. He’s so focused and when he does something he likes, he picks it up and shows me. (He demands I sit next to him.) I’ve even found he likes to draw in the car!

I don’t have a lot of experience with kids so I think this behavior is normal for a kid his age. But today Sofiya was so very impressed. She couldn’t believe how well he did all by himself.

He’s going to get a folder on the wall with his name on it.

I think I’m going to cry all over again.

Monday was President’s Day and Day Care was closed. Sofiya didn’t decide she was going to close until the end of the week so I didn’t find out until after 5 on Friday. (All the kids are sick including Walker who has a sinus/ear infection, and I think she needed the rest from all those runny noses.) Not having back up care, I made Walker my apprentice for the day. Our first stop was our financial adviser. He was an angel. He played with his blocks and he colored and he ate goldfish crackers. He had the run of the office and was the perfect gentleman. Our next stop was the Adobe office. He played blocks with some of my co-workers, colored on my white board, ran up and down the cube rows, sang, jumped and danced. He joined me for four meetings. During one, we sat on the floor and ate yogurt. During another, he jammed grilled cheese in his snack cup, smeared a dirty whiteboard eraser across a wall, and took everything out of my wallet multiple times. He also would yell “Mama!” or “Ssssshhh. Quiet!” at opportune moments. (I was terribly impressed at how well everyone focused on the meeting despite my apprentice’s activities.) He napped during the third meeting. For the fourth meeting, we were at home. He was a bit less patient and despite playing with Daddy, he spent a lot of time grabbing my hand and bringing me into the living room to watch him climb on furniture, knock down block temples, or run down the hallway.

He is perfect. I’m so proud of him.