Wuff you

I planned on organizing my classroom this morning, I even asked my mom if she could watch Ham in the morning so that I could do so in peace. The last time he came with me, he was - at times -  very helpful. But mostly, he was very bored.

Later in the night, I thought better of it and I called my mom to ask her if she would keep him while he napped so that I could spend the whole morning with him. I could always run to school while he slept at her house.

So this morning I woke him early, made a huge breakfast for us, watered the plants and headed to the Children's Museum.

It had been a long while since our last visit.

We shopped in the kiddie supermarket, Ham cooked me brunch in the café, and he made a Father's Day gift for his dad. When we left, he showed little defiance and we headed to the car without any sign of the two year old total meltdown. It was nice.

We talked about all the buses we saw as we strolled down the street. And when one giant truck blocked the sidewalk, Ham yelled at it to "Mof truck!" as if he had some say in where it should be.

It was nice to walk down the same street with Ham that I use to when I worked down there years ago. I remember catching my reflection in the gallery windows as I hurried to grab lunch and staring at my very pregnant belly in those last few weeks of pregnancy.

I hoisted Ham into his seat and started to buckle his straps. While I positioned him in his seat, I told him how proud I was that he didn't cry or scream when we left and that he did a really good job. I told him to give me a kiss before I closed the door. He reached over and planted a kiss on my face and, without hesitation, said, "I wuff you."

"You love me?" I said shocked. He's never said it before.

"I wuff you." He said nodding.

Even though it took him so long to say it and other new words and phrases have come and gone, I'm glad he picked right then to say it the most unsolicited, spur of the moment way, because I knew he meant it.