One of my close British friends said I had one of the most naturally ebullient personalities of anyone he ever met. After I looked up the word “ebullient” to make sure he wasn’t insulting me I came to understand that it defines my character better than any other single English word.
Cheerful and full of energy is exactly what I am… It is also exactly what my 4 year old hockey playing, gun shooting, dad wrestling, mom kissing, pumpkin growing, four wheeler driving son is.
He started preschool last month and he gets a color code for the day that describes how his day was. Red is an excellent day, Orange is a good day, Yellow is an OK Day and Green means that he tried to form his own terrorist cell in the classroom and overthrow the school.
Mostly he gets Red days but sometimes like yesterday he slips to Orange (or Yellow).
I don’t like it when he isn’t “perfect” and gets a non-red day. I talk to him about it and threaten to take away McDonalds, or his tablet, or just about anything I can to make him behave in class. The truth is though walking slow and playing when they shouldn’t is what four year old boys with naturally ebullient personalities do.
I have (unreasonably) high expectations for my son to excel in academics, sports, relationships, and life. I just have to remind myself that he can have those things but that he is always going to be like me and talk when he shouldn’t, run when he should walk, be the loudest guy in the room and get wrapped up in playing and not know when to stop.
The hardest part about raising a son is when you realize that he is just like you and that there is nothing wrong with it.