For: Ever

Sawyer has become a forever kind of fellow.

I first noticed it a few weeks ago when I told him that he wasn't allowed to jump on the couch. He's had the crossed arms pout down for quite awhile, but this particular time he paired the crossed arms with this declaration: "Fine. Then I'm going to my room and I'm going to stay there FOREVER!"

Kids don't just suddenly come to points like this, though. He started with smaller statements. A few months ago he began expressing his dislike for anything that wasn't working out to suit him. If his food was too hot: "I don't like food anymore." If his shoe was untied: "I don't like shoes anymore." And sometimes, if he was really in a funk, he disliked whatever was closest to him. For instance, if I told him he couldn't go outside: "I don't like Woody (or my house, or church, or Adelade, or my clothes, or my hair) anymore."

As time went on and saying "I don't like" wasn't quite as satisfying, he moved on to his declarations about forever. Probably my favorite forever statement lately happened the other day. Sawyer hates being in his room by himself, so he altered his outburst a little: "Fine. Then I'm going to my room and then I'm going to sit on the couch and watch TV FOREVER." He says it so often now that I've begun telling him that even with forever as a timeline, he's going to have a hard time fitting in all the things he's said he will now do FOREVER.

Of course, I can't help but get a little philosophical about it all, especially since I am always so aware of how little time I have with my babies. I started thinking about how a time will come when he really will make some forever statements that matter. I pray that in the coming years I hear him say, "I want to devote myself to Christ FOREVER." Someday he will probably find himself a girl that he loves even better than he loves me (gasp!), and he'll say, "I'm going to be with her FOREVER."

But, for now I am content with my time with him. I know it can't last FOREVER, but it will last quite a while, and no matter what he chooses to fit into his lifetime, I know that as far as I can see, I will love him devotedly. Maybe the next time he does something exasperating I should cross my arms and say, "Fine. Then I'm going to love you FOREVER!"