We walked out of the building. It was dark outside. And slippery, because of the ice on the ground, turned from the melted snow.
“I got something in my (Valentines) bag that can help us.” Randall started searching in the paper bag.
“What do you have? A cane?”
“No. A flashlight!”

Back when the kid had been even younger, there had always been a mix of unbearably adorable moments and even more unbearably bad meltdowns. I’d think the meltdowns would last forever, as well as the cuteness. Yet at this point I came to realize that this cuteness and sweetness of a 7-year-old is going to drift away. Soon.

From a few feet behind, I was watching him go down the sidewalk, holding the flashlight. The beam was going about everywhere. For whatever it might be shining at, it clearly did not light up the ground in front of him. But it lit up his mood, as well as mine. It was freezing and normally I wouldn’t want to stay out any longer than I had to, but somehow at this moment I wish I could freeze time, freeze the sweetness in this cold air.

This is now what Randall starts his morning and ends his day with: the vehicle puzzles, or as he calls it, “puzzle car”. He would cheerfully go to bed only if he has finished all 4 puzzles in the box, in a fixed sequence every time, of race car, school bus, train, and fire truck. I didn’t expect him to be ready for this 12-piece set at this time yet, for he couldn’t even do the 8-piece farm puzzle. And indeed in the beginning, he almost had no clue of what pieces match and what don’t. But he is SO obsessed with cars. Unlike with the old farm puzzles which I could hardly get him interested in, he asked us to sit down with him once or twice a day to work on the vehicle puzzle together. Now, after one week’s time, he has become pretty good at it. He can put them together all on his own and put them back in separate compartments. He can even figure out which pieces belong to which puzzle.

This reminds me of how I once struggled with the choice of toys. But in the end I just gave up the idea of trying to catch him up with the so-called average skills of his age. He didn’t appear very interested in drawing (esp. on paper). Nor was he verbal. “Forget about it! Just spoil him”, I decided. And by saying “spoil him”, I meant getting him toys he would most likely be interested in and saving myself from worrying about the development chart all the time. Now our apartment has become more like a garage, parked with toy vehicles of all sorts and all sizes. Besides Randall has an entire storage box dedicated to his train tracks. And like many other boys of his age, he just spends a whole of lot time doing nothing but line up or “drive” these vehicles. But now I see my way of “spoiling him” seems to have worked out. He has found something interesting for himself and keeps working on it till he gets there. Still, of course, I am always ready to help him explore new areas and new possibilities, like I get him new books every so often, check out toddler swimming classes, and give him a set of chalks in addition to the crayons.