The Little Things

Lately, we've been spending some quality time together with Teddy around 4 a.m. each day. It seems that he's waking up and needing some love and snuggles to fall back asleep.

One morning, I noticed something for the first time.

When your ear itches, you probably scratch it exactly where it itches. I'll bet you might even stick a finger inside to scratch exactly where it itches. (*Gasp* Sorry all medical professionals!)

Apparently, Teddy's ear itched that morning. I saw him paw at his ear with his entire hand. Then I saw him rotate his hand to isolate his thumb and attempt to jab his thumb into his ear. He was fairly successful with this, which didn't surprise me because he uses his thumb for swiping tablets and smart phones. Then I saw him, just for a split second, get his pointer finger inside his ear.

Now, normally if I saw Teddy struggling like this, I would have helped him by trying to scratch the itch for him. But he was almost asleep, and I didn't want to mess with that. (He can go from sleepy to wide awake in a moment ... it's a gift for him and a curse for us as parents.)

Instead, I watched him struggle. I often recognize how hard he works to do nearly everything, but this caught me off guard. It's the little things ... little or big, things take a lot of effort and concentration for Teddy. It reminds me that what he accomplishes each day is amazing.

Maybe next time I'll risk scratching his itch for him. Then again ... maybe not. He was back asleep within 5 minutes of itch.