Gifted

The title of the Willow Tree piece is "Mother and Son". It is a birthday gift from Evan. He selected this representation of a position we have held thousands of times in his twelve-going-on-thirteen years. To purchase the statuette, Evan spent his own money that he was saving to purchase a video game. (According to my calculations, he will not have enough cash to buy the game when it comes out next month. This is a major sacrifice for him after counting down to the game's release for the last six months.) What a truly humbling gift. (Yes, there was a teary-eyed Mama at our house tonight.)

We had a laugh that the boy in the figurine is short enough not to smash his Mama's port (ouch.). The slouching stance with the hands in the pockets is all Evan though. He shoves those hands down into his pockets sometimes to try to keep out of trouble for picking at people or objects when he is feeling fidgety. Don says the Mama is smoothing the boy's hair--- a fairly common motion around here that usually results in "Now, go WASH your hair!" I cannot help but run through memories of stroking that hair over the years of him laughing, screaming, needing an unknowable something, crying, sleeping, and just generally being Evan for whom expressive words do not come easily.