I Like My Kid

I picked Eli up from school tonight, and we went to the video store before we headed home. I wanted to pick up the DVD of "Hook" that Eli's been asking to watch again ever since we rented it a month or two ago. (The Peter Pan/Captain Hook/pirates obsession continues!) What was cool about this experience though, was being able to go somewhere with Eli and *not* have to "wrangle" him during the experience. In other words, instead of having to worry, say, about keeping him (or the store) safe or making sure he didn't just run off and get distracted in something else or bother other shoppers, like would have happened a year or two ago, I had a totally "normal" experience with him, like just, well, going to the video store with a friend. We looked around at the videos, talked about what looked good and what we wanted to rent, chatted with a friend we met there, paid for our movies, and walked out. We drove home and talked in the car about Eli's day at school, about the movies, about dinner, about whatever was on his mind. I really like this part of parenting--where I just get to relate to my kid as a person, as opposed to being the police officer or the teacher. Does that make sense?

I guess what I'm trying to remark on here is how much I appreciate this age that Eli's at now, where he really is a kid and not a baby anymore. And how much I enjoy hanging out with him. I feel really lucky to like my kid as a person so much...and I can't wait to see how much more I like him the longer I know him. Of course I'll always have the roles of police officer and teacher and all that other stuff too, but I'm just so thrilled to sometimes also be my kid's friend.