The BEST kid in the world

Okay, for the most part I'd have to say my kids are awesome. Not perfect but they are certainly amazing to me. Maybe you will think so too. Warning...bragging blog to follow!

This morning I watched through the front window as my son walked across the street to the bus stop. Josh is really lucky, the bus stop is basically right out his front door and rarely does he have to race to catch the bus in time. As Josh was half way across the street I saw his pace instantly change, he must have seen the bus turning onto the street. He ran the rest of the way and stood on the curb and waited for the bus to arrive. Then just to the left of Joshua, I saw a little girl in our neighborhood, a 1^st grader, also running down the road. She was a little further behind and would have to run the rest of the way in order to get to the bus stop. I watched as the buses yellow blinking lights turned on, the stop sign came out, the bus came to a complete stop, and the blinking lights turned red as the door opened. At this point, Joshua who was directly in front of the doors, actually stepped backwards away from bus and he turned his attention to this little girl. I saw him wave his hand at her telling her to go first, he watched as she continued to run, then pass him and through the doors of the bus. Darn right amazing for an eight year old if you ask me. Now let me just set this up by telling you that getting on the bus first is a rare occasion for this little girl. She and Josh are on different tracks, (Year round school) not only that but most of the other kids in the neighborhood are also on a separate track from them as well. So for three weeks while the rest of the kids are off-track it leaves only Josh and this little girl at the bus stop. Unfortunately when Josh goes off-track, this little girl is often ignored and pushed aside. No matter where she is standing when the bus gets there, she is always the last one on. She is a very smart little girl but she has some obvious physical handicaps and unfortunately she gets treated differently because of it. I don’t think most of the other kids are mean and horrible kids (although some kids I’d like have a small chat with) but they are uncomfortable with the way she looks and the way she walks. A few weeks ago I watched as Josh was crossing the street directly in front of the bus (he was a little later than usual) he stopped just before he got to the curb because there was a rather large dog barking at both he and this little girl. Basically this dog was right between him and this little girl. Now Josh probably could have turned the corner and jumped into the bus fast enough, but he didn’t. I thought maybe it was because he was afraid to get any closer to the big dog. After the little girl tried several times to walk different directions around dog, she stopped trying because the dog kept getting more and more agitated. I watched as the bus driver took off her seat belt and flew down the buses steps in a matter of a second. She yelled at the dog and dog finally ran away. The driver boarded the bus, but Josh still stood where he was, he waiting for the little girl to finally approach the bus, he stepped back and let her get on first. Another time I watched in shock as my son actually cut in front of her, he got onto the bottom step and then tuned around and held his hand out to help her up, it was a wet and cold, windy day and she had already been struggling to get to the bus that morning. I can’t tell you how proud I am of that little boy. I know that these three weeks where she and Josh are the only ones at the bus stop are pretty special to her and I am so proud of my son for giving them to her!

I know my title says best kid in the world but really I've got a bunch of them in this family. Here are a few fun stories about the other kids as well.

Emily was putting her book bag together for school this morning, I watched as she put something inside that I didn't recognize. I asked her what she just put in there? To which she replied, "Oh my teacher said she ran out of stickers so I tore a sticker page out of my sticker book that grandma gave me and I'm going to give it to my teacher!" What a sweetie....too bad she isn't as thoughtful with her own brothers. But either way, no one asked her to give her stuff away, she wanted to share her stickers with someone who didn't have any!

Rusty was walking around the house with Joshua’s Wolf book. He would turn a page and say, uh-huh, turn another page and say uh-huh and then he would close the book, take a deep breath and say, THE END! While I was reading him a little book last night, I got to the end of the book and closed it. He looked up at me and said "The End?" Yes apparently mom needs to make sure I say "The End" when finished with a book, whether it's written in the book or not!

I watched Wesley do a pretty advanced skill (well better than me) on the Wii the other day. I gasped and said something like, “holy cow, that was great” to which he replied calmly, “I know, I’m awesome!”

Yup my kids are awesome!