- His compassion and empathy. He is such a loving boy, surprisingly. Maybe that’s my sexism coming out or how I’ve been socialized to think that sensitivity in the male gender is so rare. Nate seems to really care for other people. Today, one of the infants was visiting his classroom because she is transitioning to there from the infant room. And she apparently got a tad overwhelmed – it can happen when you have toddlers that range in age from just over a year to two years of age. So she started crying and Nate went over to her, sat down next to her and started rubbing her head, to try to calm her down. I want to cultivate that in him – I find that empathy is so important!
- His curiosity and desire to learn. Nate is such a sponge right now. I want to make sure that he continues to love learning for his whole entire life, not just during his formative years. For me, my desire to learn is satisfied just about everyday at work where I get to think on my feet, create new arguments, research. Also, I am an avid reader. I read a ton in my spare time. I worry about Nate not wanting to read and worry about coming up with other ways to challenge him to keep learning in his own life.
- Respect for mommy and, by extension, all women. No, I don’t want Nate to be Oedipus. I don’t want him to marry his mommy, or a woman that is exactly like his mommy. But I want him to respect all people, and particularly, women. I want him to be a feminist!
On another note, I worked out an insane amount today. I was up at 5 this morning – thanks to Nate, I was up at 5. I don’t like to go back to bed when my alarm is going to go off again in an hour or less. I end up waking up feeling worse than if I had just stayed up. So I got up, put my workout clothing on, and walked for half an hour. Then I went to work and this afternoon, I did another half an hour on the elliptical machine at the gym before picking Nate up. I felt really good about myself. The doctor telling me that I had high cholesterol, even though it wasn’t THAT high, scared me, quite frankly. My paternal grandfather suffered a massive heart attack when he was like 45 (my dad was only 13) and died. So the history is there and I need to minimize that risk. That means eating better and exercising.
Mommy Madness 
I think those are things that all moms worry about. How cute was it that he rubbed her head to soothe her.
I also meant to say thanks for commenting on my blog about ‘that’ post. It really bothered me but when I thought about it, it was a great lesson to learn. I imagine that is how anyone feels when they are discriminated against. I want to remember that feeling so that I don’t do that to someone else.