Tobips*

Did I mention that Tobias turned 6 last month? He did. Six! He is in kindergarten this year and loves it. I thought I would share a couple of things about Tobias this year and a couple of stories from last year that have resurfaced.

Tobias has always loved being a caretaker. At his daycare, he loved to take care of the younger kids. Sometimes, he was a little overbearing, carrying them around or hugging them dozens of times each day. Most of them took it in good stride, but some of them were always a little wary of him. This year, not much has changed. His teacher asked him to be in charge of making a sure a new student felt comfortable at school and knew what to do. She started last week. The teacher walked down the hallway, checking on all of the kindergartners as they put away their snow gear and got ready to come into the classroom. There was Tobias, carefully unzipping the new girl's coat for her, taking off her gloves, putting away her hat, etc. while she just stood there like a shell shocked scarecrow. As the teacher got closer to let Tobias know that this girl could probably do most things for herself, she overheard him saying, "...and I'm really good at giving hugs. I like to give lots of hugs..." We may need to have some more lessons on consent, and just generally how to woo ladies with modern sensibilities.

Speaking of wooing ladies, last year Tobias had a fiancee. They were engaged for most the year until one day, in the Spring, Tobias came home and announced, "Well. It's over." "What's over?" "We're not getting married anymore." "Oh, why? What happened?" "*sigh* She dumped me for some new guy." Poor guy. After that the relationship was on again, off again. Ahh, the drama of young love.

Recently, Tobias' kindergarten class did a unit on dinosaurs. Tobias loved it. He read all of our dinosaur books, played with the toy dinosaurs in the basement and even asked for another stuffed dinosaur for his birthday so he could have a complete stuffed T-rex family. One of his favorite dinosaur books is called, "We Don't Eat Our Classmates" about Penelope Rex. She tends to eat her classmates. Anyway, one evening I read him the book and then tucked him in. He suddenly said, "Mom, people should not kill dinosaurs. Unless they are very poor and don't have enough food. Then it's okay. Goodnight!"
I giggled to myself. I had no idea he had such clear ideas about the ethics of killing prehistoric animals. Good to know in case the whole Jurassic Park saga ever plays out. Do you think survival is also an ethical reason to kill dinosaurs? I'll have to ask.

Last year, Benjamin and Tobias enrolled in a music class called "Let's Play Music". The class is pretty awesome and the boys love it. They are taking it again this year. Anyway, last year, the class was at my dear friend's house which meant that I often took a little time in getting out the door so I could quickly catch up with my friend, give her a hug, you know, friend stuff. Typically this wasn't a problem, but every once in a while, the boys would sneak out the door while I was chatting and then I had a heck of a time corralling them and getting them in the van. One particular day, Tobias announced that he did not want to get in the van and that he was walking home. My friend's house is more than a mile away from home and one would have to cross some very busy streets. Not to mention that we had never walked to music class before so he would have no idea of which direction to go. However, being an experienced mom, I did not argue with him. Instead, I just said, "sure" and decided to discreetly follow him with the van so I could be there to rescue him when he got tired and scared. Unfortunately, he did not get tired or scared. He never even looked back. After about 10 minutes, I couldn't take it anymore. I did not have 40 minutes to waste creeping along after this child, so I stopped the van and got out to confront him and let him know he really just needed to ride home. He ran.
Frankly, I am shocked that I did not end up on some true crime show with the following voice-over for re-enacted footage:
"Picture this- you see a small, 5-year-old boy walking confidently down the sidewalk. Soon, you see a van creeping along behind him at distance, stopping every once in a while, then moving again. The driver seems to be a crazed woman with no make-up on. Suddenly, she stops the van again, but this time she jumps out and yells something at the little boy. He takes off running. She chases him, tackles him to the ground, drags him to the van kicking and screaming, and forces him inside. She shuts the door, then returns to the driver's seat and starts driving again. She only gets a few feet when the little boy miraculously forces the door open, jumps out,  and starts running again. He is screaming, "I am walking home! You can't make me ride with you!". It looks like the woman drives away, but no she stops again and repeats the chasing, tackling, and throwing in the van routine. This time, he doesn't get back out. If you see this woman, please call the local authorities."

I really am grateful and surprised that someone did not catch this whole thing on camera and that I was not Facebook infamous or charged by CPS. You can't make this stuff up. Only Tobips* can.

*We affectionately call him Tobips sometimes because when he was learning to write his name he often reversed his "a" and gave it an extra long stem so it looked like a "p".