O Canada

Just like in the States, the students in Canada start their day off with a pledge/anthem type thing. During the 2nd week of school, they started letting students sing the anthem during the morning announcements. Sometimes it's on video and sometimes it's on the intercom. Since the first time Max saw students do it, he has been begging to do it. So we had a conference with his teacher on Tuesday and he mentioned that he wanted to sing the anthem. The next day his teacher made it happen. He had to sing it to the principal and then she told him he would be doing it Friday! We practiced a little at home to make sure he had the correct words. I help with the reading program in Mya's room every morning for 15 minutes with other parents so I got to hear him sing today. He ended up singing with 2 other classmates and they did a wonderful job. I was hoping it would be a tv day, but it wasn't so I couldn't see him, but we heard him just fine! Afterwards, the principal gave Max a shout out for being from the States and getting the Canadian anthem memorized so quickly and being so brave to sing to the school! Mya's teacher also commented to her class letting everyone know that it was Mya's brother who was singing today:)Here's a link to the video I took in Mya's classroom on you tube.

I think why I'm so proud of Max for doing this is because it's not something I would have done in a million years. I just go through life trying not to stick out or putting myself in situations where things could go very wrong. Could be his age or his personality, but those kinds of things don't even cross his mind. Sometimes I'm not sure if he's 7 or 37. The other night we were eating at our very favorite restaurant, The Keg. We've been there two other times on special occasions, but last week we went just because Max really wanted to. When the waiter was taking our order Max had two choices (the hamburger sliders or the roast beef sliders) and so he asked the waiter which one he would prefer. Then after he got done placing his order, he said to the waiter, "excuse me, I didn't catch your name?" The waiter looked at Chris and me as if to say, Is this kid for real?

Last night during our dinner prayer he said something along the lines of thank you god for letting us come to Canada. I wasn't sure those words would ever come out of his mouth. I know if I told him we were moving back home, he would jump for joy and would be facetiming Sam and Owen and William in about .5 seconds, but the fact that he is happy and comfortable here makes me so so happy. He has definitely had a few moments the last few weeks that make me think he's starting to test the limits a bit with things he is saying, with what he's doing to his sisters, the signs that are going on his door, etc. but there are times when he still melts my heart. Like last night we were walking home from the neighbors house and Ivy fell off of her bike. He ran ahead, picked her up and started walking home with her. (I was pretty sure she was faking the injury so that's why I didn't drop everything and run, but I wasn't going to stop Max:)