Unqualified admiration and brutal honesty

It pays with Jamie not to get too invested in some of the emotions that he expresses from day to day. On the one hand, as noted before, he can be very mushy and this is certainly heartfelt and wonderful. So, too, is his admiration for some of the relatively simple things we do. At one point, I lifted the Ottoman in our living room in search of one of Connor's pacifiers and Jamie exclaimed, "Dad, you're the strongest person in the whole world!" Not long after one of the lights in the hallway outside Jamie's room went out. This was a source of some concern for him but when I said I would change it he came running out of his room and watched with rapt attention. As I screwed the new bulb into the socket, he exclaimed, "That's AMAZING."

On the other hand, he can be a little harsh sometimes. He got invited to a Build-a-Bear party recently and participated only in the most general sense of the term, not having much interest in stuffed animals, as some of you may know. He made a kitty cat, which Sarah thought would be a winner, given his super-kitty alter ego, but when he got home I asked him if he would take care of the kitty cat and he said, "No, I don't love it; It's for Connor." Interestingly, however, kitty cat has in fact become Jamie's real first stuffed animal and he sleeps with it next to his bed. He doesn't want it in his bed. One night he explained: "Dad, I have a plan with the kitty cat. I won't sleep with it because it will scratch me, but after I wake up I will take it upstairs and snuggle it."

The fact that kitty cat's fortunes can swing so wildly helps me deal with moments like the other night when I was putting Jamie to bed. He was being a little mushy and said "Dad, I love you all the way to Mars. I love Mommy all the way to Eris." (Jamie's very up to date with the planets) And then, sensing something in his metaphor, he said, almost like a discovery, "Dad, I don't love you as much as Mommy." Ouch. Oh, well, if kitty cat can come back, maybe I can make it to Eris.