Little Man is driving....

So I have been pretty quiet for the last few days because it's just been so NOT normal here. Whatever "normal" is for us, at least.

I had knee surgery on Tuesday which is good because I was having a hard time keeping up with Little Man but on the flip side I definitely can't keep up with him right now. 

My folks kept him for two nights and just generally entertained him most of the time. Fi showed up at 5:30 in the morning the day of surgery to be there when he woke up since I had to be at the hospital at 6 am and take him to daycare.  My church fed us for 6 days.

I have had so many people helping that it truly is amazing because I would not have been able to do it without them. And as I reflect, I realize how much I have to be grateful for in my life.

Today we went out to a pumpkin patch owned by a friend of mine.  She has been a "follower" on FB of Little Man and I and reached out to ask if he would like to come out.  While I don't think the pumpkins were the main attraction for him, she knew enough to offer a tractor ride as bait.

He ran so long and hard but was so happy.  He held Pam's hand - a stranger he had just met but was so comfortable with her.  Sat on another man's lap to ride on a tractor.  Overcame some uncertainties that had him scared. He was so brave and adventurous.

This is the hard part of being a foster mom because I have so many wonderful pictures of him today.  I have a video of him driving the tractor and the sheer joy on his face is breathtaking.  I want to be that proud momma that force feeds you images of my boy and shames you into "liking" my posts ad nauseam.  But I'm not allowed to.  So, I am skirting the rules by putting a star over his face but I hope you can see his joy like we did.

I will tell you that I looped that video I took.  I took all 24 seconds of it and repeated it for over 30 minutes and he must have watched it for almost 90 minutes.  He was so happy to see himself driving the tractor and kept asking me to watch him driving his tractor.

I put a very tired but very happy Little Man to bed. He was still talking about steering the tractor as I crept out of his room telling him I will see him in the morning and that I love him.