Calder - by Julie

I decided I needed to write about my sweet Calder-boy today.   :)

Calder has always been such a sweet, funny boy.  He's very observant and thoughtful and has a gift for remembering peoples' names and faces.  If we see someone he recognizes he'll say, "There's (so & so).  They go to my school," and the kid usually looks at him like, "Who are you and how do you know my name?"  
He also loves to change his name.  When he was three he insisted his name was Scooter David (or various forms of it) then for years was just Calder again.  I remember Leah went through a stage of insisting on being called names like "Robin Hood" or "Peter Pan" and would not answer unless you called her by the name she prefered at the moment.  I loved it and found it so sweet and endearing.  So when Calder started then stopped, I missed it.  But lately he has taken to wanting to be called various names again.    :)   It changes often, sometimes weekly, daily, even hourly.  Lately he has been known as "Hulk", "Mr. Strong", "Six" (that's how old he is), "Jet", "Wolverine", "Finn McMissile".  One of his classmates even addressed her valentine for him, "to Hulk".   :)    I love it!

I had to scan some of his worksheets with his name on them to have it recorded forever.   As you can see, he likes to embellish just the regular Calder, as well.   :)

Today on the way home from school he asked if he could go to a friend's house (because she had cookies) and Bess said no because we don't know her mom and don't even know what she looks like.  Calder said in response, "I can't tell you what she looks like, because it's a bad word and it starts with an "f "."  As you can probably guess, he's had experience saying this "f" word far too loudly and obviously, embarrassing the person and mortifying his mother.

But he's also an honest complimentor/sweet talker.  He often compliments me on what I'm wearing and many times at church he has raved about what someone is wearing.  One day he went around showing everyone his friend Addalyn saying, "Look at her dress!  Doesn't she look beautiful?"  Her mom told me Addalyn often would chose what to wear based on whether or not Calder would think it was pretty.    :)   One Sunday when he saw our chorister (his Sunbeam teacher), he gasped and pointing at her, whispered to me, "Oh Mom!  Look at Sister Hayes!  Doesn't she look beautiful with that feather in her hair?"   And today there was a note from his teacher that simply said, "Such a sweet child!"   Apparently he told a girl in his class her hair looked pretty and it impressed his teacher.   :)   I love this boy!

We have a little friend named Grace who is so sweet and extremely well-behaved.  Bess and Calder have both randomly commented to me about how good Grace is, and you know it's extraordinary when kids notice it.  So a couple of weeks ago after church, Calder said to me, "I decided I'm not going to be bad anymore because of Grace."  Then in his prayers that night he kept saying, "Thank you that I changed my mind."  And for the past 2+ weeks as he and Max have been playing, I'll hear them start to complain or argue or something, then one of them will gasp and say, "Oh yeah!  Remember, the rules?" meaning "remember we've decided to be good like Grace".  It has been so sweet to see them want to be like her!  I've made sure we've also talked about whose example Grace is following.   :)   I am just so tickled about all of this.  It's so sweet!  On Sunday I made sure I told her mom and thanked her for her sweet daughter.  By the way, Calder has already asked her dad if he can marry Grace.  It's all set.   :)  
One time I was at the store with her and her mom and I grabbed a bag of Andes mints and when they said they had never had them before, I opened the bag right there in the aisle to share.  Sweet Grace gaped, mouth open at me, then looked at her mom.  I quickly explained that I was still going to be paying for them, but I could see this didn't comfort her any.  I tried to save myself by saying I often did this so we wouldn't be so hungry and want to buy everything, but I could see the damage was done.  I'm already tainted in my future daughter-in-law's eyes.    ;)    Hopefully Calder does better than me and remains untainted in her eyes.