His Kind Heart

Lucas has such a kind heart.

When he was in preschool he would often come home with something from the treasure box for Kayla; and one time he picked a ring for me ("Now you don't have to wear that one [my wedding ring] anymore." he told me).

One day when I was picking him up from preschool his teacher told me that he had two things from the treasure box he was trying to chose between. He had a Batman figurine in one hand and a crown-shaped barrette in the other hand looking back and forth between them. In the end he put the Batman down and chose the barrette to give to Kayla.

A few weeks ago he walked up the driveway from the school bus and he was crying. We got in the house and he was crying so hard he couldn't talk. We snuggled on the couch for several minutes with me trying to find out what happened, but he didn't want to talk about it. Each time he started to talk he started crying again. Finally he said he wanted to have his snack first and then talk about it.

After his snack he started to tell me the story. He sits on the bus with 2 girls from his class - A and J. A lives across the street from us and they often play together. He said A leaned over to whisper something to J and at this point he wanted to write down what she said because he didn't want to say it. A whispered for J to say something not-so-nice about Lucas. I asked him if he's sure he heard her right, maybe he misunderstood because she was whispering.

He said he's pretty sure he could hear what she said and he repeated it to her by saying, "You said to J to say (x,y,z) to me?" and that A just started laughing. So he nudged her. A little nudge with his elbow. She had been holding a cup that had several sprouts from flower seeds they planted in class and when he nudged her it fell out of her hands.

He got down on the floor of the bus and scooped up as much of the dirt as he could and put it back in her cup, but A was crying. When they got off the bus he tried to apologize to her but he said she was just crying more and then yelled at him that he was a big meanie.

I tried to find out what exactly was making him cry like he was - was it because of what he heard her whisper to J, or did he feel bad because he caused her flowers to spill. Initially he said he was upset by what she said, but then he went upstairs to his room and when he came back I talked to him about it again.

I asked him if he heard what A said but if her cup never fell over would he have been crying because of what she said? He said no, he would have been upset and sad but wouldn't have been crying. He said when they got off the bus and she was still crying and then yelled at him calling him a big meanie he couldn't help but start to cry since she was crying. He felt bad that she was so upset about her dirt spilling out.

Then he said he wanted to go to the store and by some seeds to plant in a cup and give her.

I love how his mind works and thinks up things on his own like that. So two weeks later, at the end of school, his seeds had sprouted and he was ready to give her this cup.

My sweet, caring, kind-hearted first grader on the last day of school:

Bring on 2nd Grade!