so big

I hope I can get through this post without crying...

For a while we've been telling Aiden that if he would learn to ride his bike without training wheels, we would buy him a new, big boy bike. Which he desperately needed. His little bike was way too small for him. He just didn't have the motivation for while to learn, and I didn't want to buy him a new bike till he could ride without trainers.

Sometime last week, he decided he was ready. And I thought I was too. He went out and proved to us that he could do it. So we went out and bought him this super cool big boys bike. It clearly fits, and yet it doesn't. He still seems so little to me. I see him riding on this bike, and he seems like a completely different person.

I keep telling him to stop getting bigger, and he tells me, very apologetically, "but mom, I have to get bigger. Heavenly Father wants me to grow big so I can go on a mission and teach the people about the gospel, and then I can have children." And then my heart stops. Logically, that is my ultimate goal for him. I want him to grow up to be a successful person, serve a mission, and be a worthy husband and father. I don't care that he wants to be a detonator when he grows up, rather than a doctor. I don't care that he's going to be two feet taller than both Kenny and I. I just don't want to think about it yet.

It makes me sad. Yet I'm SO proud of him. Somebody gave a talk in church once and said that he never tells his kids he's proud of them, because of the negative connotations of the word pride. I tell Aiden I am proud of him every day. And I am.
He starts Kindergarten on Monday. School technically started on the 15th, but they were so kind and are letting me gradually work into it. The first day was a (kind of lame) meet and greet for the kids to get to know their teacher and their classroom. We were only there for about 45 minutes. The next day he had individual testing, so his teacher could see kind of where he was starting from. She was most impressed. And then he's had the rest of the week off. School starts for real on Monday. Wish me luck.

And he? Is just having the time of his life. He enjoys pretty much everything we do, and is just about the sweetest person I know.