Determination...

Weston was determined to have me mow the lawn today.  Nothing could deter him.  I had wanted to lie in the backyard on a picnic blanket and look up at the clouds in our sunglasses.  He got bored with that right away, but I was fascinated.  There were shimmery pink and green bits on the edges of the clouds near the sun, and the clouds diffused the great glowing orb at times so I could see it's perfect circle without squinting.  Amazing.  I saw a rabbit, a donut, a key, Great Britain, and Alaska.  Weston saw a train.

But then, he systematically triumphed over all my excuses about mowing the lawn.  He was under the deck, tugging on the machine and I kept trying to dissuade him.  Finally he won out.  I had gotten on my boots, wrenched the mower out, cleaned it, gassed it, and sure enough it started first pull. (Darn.)  So we mowed.  Well, I did mostly - yelling at Weston to remove any big rocks or sticks along the way. ...And it was fun.  Although I'm a bit stiff now.  Donovan took the above picture when he got home.  Yes, we're holding the mower.  I kept saying, "Can you see Weston and I?" and he'd assure me he could, but I didn't think about the mower.

The other day when Brad helped Weston make marble canoes I asked him, "How should we thank Brad?"  "With a chicken pie, of course," was his prompt reply.  So we set out to make some.  I had some tiny pie tins and we called up Brad and his wife Glenda to join us for lunch and got busy.  I had some rye flour, mixed with regular flour, and then we added sour cream and onion potato chips to the Cuisinart and mixed up some dough with Crisco.  It was pretty special, if not a bit crumbly.  We rolled it out, smashed it into the tins and added a bit of strained chicken and vegetable rice soup, some left over chicken curry, some roasted garlic, some acorn squash I had just baked, some cream sauce, and Weston insisted on adding a dab of seedy mustard right on top.  Then we did train cookie cutter shapes for the top dough and baked.  Oh yeah, there was cheese on the top and bottom too!  My goodness what an original pie!  The mustard was really zesty and fun (I was sure it was going to be too much.)  But then we had arugula salad with radishes, broccoli and cucumber and chocolate dipped strawberries!  What a feast.  I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't even think of it.  Weston regaled us with riddles and we had a pleasant time.

The other day he paused outside in the dirt and stared at his hand.  "What's up?" I asked.  "Mom," he said, "I like having ants on me; they tickle."

Weston is a very inventive and original thinker, but most of all he is persistent.  If he's got an idea, he just knows it can be done, and no amount of dissuading will work.  I think he's ready for school... in a way.  The other day we went for a brief "first ride on the bus" and when the lady asked "What do you do if you miss the bus?"  Weston said "You could walk."  Then another kid said, "You could drive!"  And another one said, "You could drive two cars!!"  The lady laughed and said dismissively, "How could you drive two cars?!" And started to continue.  Weston promptly raised his hand and spoke out, "I have a solution!  You roll down the window and have one hand on one wheel, and one on the other, and one foot on one pedal and one on the other."  There was a brief silence following as all the parents and kids in the room realized he was dead serious, then they all laughed.  Weston turned and looked at me a little confused, but then he smiled.  I was amazed he wasn't shy in this setting, but mostly I was struck how he could contain his self confidence and ideas and be willing to share them.  What an interesting creature.

I'm sure, with his persistence, all will eventually see his ideas do work... eventually.