This year we gave him a nudge...OK, we made him go to the information meeting. Did he come back all pumped up? YES. That night M pulled out his sash with all of his merit badges he earned as a Boy Scout. The big boys were in awe. They wanted to know what each one represented, how he earned them, how long it took and then when they discovered M is an Eagle Scout they were dumbfounded. From that second both Z and A decided they wanted to do the same. Their tune changed a bit when they found out how long it took to earn the Eagle but they were still interested.
Last weekend we went to the Scout store to buy Z's uniform. The minute we walked in I felt a change in M. He had a nostalgic look in his eyes and kinda just stood there for a second taking it all in. We looked at all the badges and M pointed out some of the new ones. We talked about things he remembered as a scout and how you earned different items. I could feel him walking back in time.
That night I started sewing the patches on Z's shirt because he had a scout event the next day. How hard can it be? Just put the patch on the shirt, right? Four hours later I had finished two...yes, TWO...patches. Um, not cool. Perfectionism does have a down side. I finally had to call it quits at 12:30am because I could barely hold my eyes open. (Mimi, I love you even more for sewing all my band patches on my pleather band jacket back in the day.)
So the next day, patches in place (perfectly I might add), M helped Z get dressed. He explained how to adjust the belt to fit perfectly and where the buckle should land on his waist. I watched as M meticulously and quietly rolled the bright yellow scarf and placed it around Z's neck.
Then he had him turn so he could fix the collar just so. As I watched them through my lens I couldn't believe M was putting the same kind of uniform on his son. I watched the memories race through him and all of the pieces fit together like he'd done it for years.
And so we have a little Wolf on our hands...
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