Insights into My Son

Nick's room has become increasingly more cluttered over the last few months to the point where I couldn't walk by and look at it one more time. :-) So we took advantage of the holiday from school Monday and set aside the morning to completely de-junkify his room. We started out with 2 large bags...one for garbage and one for D.I...as it turned out...we needed a few more bags for each. :-) But as we were going through every single item in his room I gained some new insights into my boy.

I already knew this at some level, but I gained overwhelming clarity of what a curious mind he has. As we went through the myriad of items from books on the human body, books on animals (ones that get into the science of why their bodies are the way they are and how they are built for survival), science experiment kits, bottles and other items he was saving to do experiments with, baggies of things he found to look at under his microscope (I won't go into any details here but some of it was disgusting...pure boy stuff :)), National Geographics given to him by my dad with pages marked on interesting facts about China, how animals minds work, how volcanoes erupt, books on survival and all his survival items he's bought with his own money, etc. (The only way I'd ever survive in the wilderness is to have him and his survival backpack with me!)

His love of music is very evident as well as his ipod and speakers are front and center on his night stand (playing loudly the whole time we're cleaning) and he has 2 guitars and 3 amps in his room of which he mainly plays 1 of the guitars using 1 amp but he refuses to let me put any of the other amps or guitar in the basement because they mean too much to him. :-)

I realized how much basketball means to him as he has both of his basketballs under his bed so they don't get ruined by the cold outside. He also has all of his trophies proudly displayed of his years on different basketball teams. He has a specific spot for his current teams jersey and the shorts he wears for the games each week.

But the thing I learned that softened my heart the most was the sentimental part. He has a small little treasure chest in his closet with everything he received on his baptism day to remind him of that day. (He still has everything from your talk Marci). But when I was holding back the tears is when he opened up a folder and showed me every note I've written him. He's saved every single one! That does a mom's heart good to see that of her 11 year old boy who is in the process of figuring out how to be independent and make this change from boy to young man.

So after 3 hours of de-cluttering, dusting, organizing, and vacuuming, his room was spotless, organized and inviting to be in again. It was worth every minute spent on it! Not only for the pleasantness of the room again, but for the insights gained! I highly recommend for every parent to spend a few hours in your childs room!