An update :: Elliott

Well, third grade is almost in the books.  It's been a good year, for a good boy.  I mean, the first, oh, seven years of your life were pretty challenging but I have to say that when you turned eight, and since January when you turned NINE, you have become a delightful young man.  We are getting along pretty well these days and it probably has a lot to do with how responsible you are, and how much more I can leave you alone and let you manage on your own.

Independence has always been your thing.  It suits you, my boy!

I guess no post about your current status in life would be complete without the story of the Fit Bit Charge.  It has defined months of your life and taught you some important lessons.

At Christmas, you got a fit bit.  It delighted you to no end, but as soon as you got back to school after winter break, a lot of your friends had fit bits, and fancier ones at that.  As with most things, you talk to your Grandma Judy before your mom and dad, but we knew that there was a fit bit talk coming.  You wanted a new one.  A fancier one.  One that tells you the time and exactly how many thousands of steps you take in a day (you average 100,000 plus steps a week, by the way, that's a little over 14,000 steps a day.) and your heart rate.

Finally, you decided to talk to me about it after school one day because, your buddy Yoshi having something you didn't was eating you alive.  You made sure to point out that Yoshi's dad bought it for him, just because, and were implying that I do the same.  Much to your disappointment, that was not the case.  Instead, I talked to you about goals and planning and saving your money.  We figured out that if you do all your jobs each week, you earn $5 and how long it would take you at $5 a week to earn the money for the fit bit of your dreams.

That was not good enough for you.  It wasn't FAST enough.  And even though you wanted mom and dad to buy it for you, you buckled down pretty fast to go on a money earning rampage.  For a little over three months, you worked your butt off for your dad, for me, for Grandma and even doing some jobs at Great Grandpa Huber's house.  You volunteered for jobs you'd normally run out of the room for.  You did anything your dad asked you to if there was an extra dollar as a reward.  Throughout it all, your attitude was pretty good and you really impressed me with your determination.

You faltered once, when you were so close to your goal, thinking that you'd give up on what you really wanted in order to get something else, faster.  But, we talked you off that ledge and pushed through the last couple weeks of money earning.

When that dumb fit bit came in the mail from Amazon, and I presented the box to you across the kitchen table on a Sunday night, I've maybe never seen you so excited.  You were beaming and glowing; giddy and jumpy.

You are a good boy, with a lot going on in your little nine year old life and you are handling it like a champ.  It's so much fun to watch you grow up and get better at making good decisions every single day.