Scott has always had a heart for animals. From about the time he was Owen's age when he fell head over heels in love with horses, he has always shown extra interest in animals. A girlfriend emailed me this week that our local library was going to have a "nature guy" who was going to bring animals that the kids could touch. And FREE! Sign me up. So that's where we headed this afternoon and it did not disappoint. (Although the website did because it said it started at 4:00 and we arrived at 3:45 thinking we were early but they had already started at 3:30, but it seems we hadn't missed too much, no harm, no foul)
Since we were walking in a couple minutes late Scott was his usual hesitant self and did not want to go sit with the kids by himself, which was fine and we were all able to sit together.
The instructor then sent around the first "attraction": the baby kangaroo!!! Excitement ensued! All the kids got to pet him and Scott was in it. No more hesitation or shyness. (A little side story: The women walking the kangaroo around got to us and I said "Oh Scott do you want to touch it?" And she says to me: "oh no no, you don't ask him you tell him: Let's try together." I get what she was trying to do, I do, but don't. I know my child, I know he wanted to, thanks but no thanks for your advice.)
Then the teacher started asking for volunteers. Each child that he called on to come up was given an animal to walk around the room and let the other children pet.
Scott petting a salamander of some variety.
Kangaroo. Up close and personal.
Here comes a big 'ol lizard....
These two (Parker J on the left and Scott on the right wearing daddy's "awesome race car hat") dove in to touch that guy...
Tarantula. At first Scott was not into him at all. "I don't like this one." I believe were his exact words followed by a good case of the chills.
Parker however was ready to hold him.
Scott decided eventually that it was ok to touch. With one finger.
I was specifically did not tell Scott he was "brave", I didn't want to think that the spider (or any of the animals were scary) so I told him daddy was going to be so excited to hear about it and that I bet daddy wishes he was here to touch it too (Lie, daddy would not have wanted to touch it either, but I'm sure he would have had he been there, just for Scott!!!!)
Around the second or third time the teacher asked for volunteers Scott just ran right up to the front. Scott has never really been in a 'raise-your-hand-wait-to-be-called-on' situation before so he didn't understand that the teacher had been calling on people so right as he was almost all the way up the teacher (Mr. Baldy-Balderson pictured below) looked at him and said, "HEY! Did I call on you?" and Scott froze. I explained that Scott didn't know (by the way the website for this free event said "all ages welcome") and I saw Scott's whole future hang in the balance: would this be the defining moment after which Scott would never again volunteer for anything ever? Scott is such a sensitive soul and there is nothing worse to him than being "yelled" at (not that the teacher yelled but he was definitely gruff about it) or being in "trouble" whether real or perceived. I had visions of him crying and wanting to leave in that moment, not understanding what he did wrong and being scarred for life (melodramatic I know). In the same moment I could not have been prouder that my usually shy guy had jumped up to volunteer for something in a room full of strangers, most of the kids being older than he is. I prayed that Prof. Baldy would not ruin this moment for him. After I whispered to Scott to come sit with me and another volunteer told him he would get a turn eventually he was fine and came back to his seat. I can't tell you how relieved I felt.
A few minutes later the teacher asked for the boy in the orange shirt: TA-DAH! Scott knew it was him and ran right up. I stayed back and tried to snap a few pictures from afar. I didn't want to squelch his independence.
The teacher started handing out snakes at this point and putting one around each child's neck and shoulders. I think he could tell by the look on Scott's face (although Scott didn't fully freak out and I was so proud) that he wasn't crazy about a snake around his neck, so he let Scott touch each of them before putting them around another child's neck.
Finally he found the perfect animal for Scott to be in charge of. A tree frog. He gave it to Scott in green cloth (thereby making my pictures crap because you can't differentiate frog from cloth) and sent him around the room to show everyone. Of course Scott came straight for us (Hilary, myself, Parker J., Owen, Auntie Nicole, Ryder and some other friends) but my normally shy guy was so proud to show off this animal.
He proudly took the frog to everyone in the room 4 times a piece. I watched pretty closely from as far away as possible. I wanted Scott to feel like I trusted him, which I did, and to feel responsible, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't just a little bit nervous about a repeat of the fish incident, and only once did I step in and remind Scott to look at how he was holding the frog because the poor thing was being held face down and booty in the air. Scott did wonderfully and never squished the frog, not even a little.
Showing cousin Ryder the frog.
It was a wonderful experience and such a proud mommy moment for me. I am always proud of my kiddos but this is one of those moments that will always stand out in my memory. To watch Scott feel so sure of himself, so excited to be responsible for something, so proud of himself. I tear up just writing about it now. It could have gone so differently, he could have chickened out or felt self conscious after the teacher told him he hadn't been called on yet. But he didn't, he was patient and he was ready to go again when it was his turn.
If you don't know this already, Scott is exactly me as a child. Exactly. I remember feeling all of those feelings that I watch him feel. Self doubt when he thinks he's in trouble. It breaks my heart to watch those moments. Bursting with pride when I watched Scott break out of his shell today is an understatement, I almost exploded with happiness!
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