The Poem Tree

Last night as I was saying goodnight to Baylor, he said he had a poem for me.  The poem he recited for me, that he had come up with entirely on his own, was amazing.  I sat there in absolute awe of the rhymes, the cadence, everything.  I wish I had had a video camera with me to capture it, but, alas, I didn't.  I only had the hope that he'd still remember it in the morning.

When he woke up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as he is most Sundays, he bounded downstairs and informed me that he wanted to make a poem tree in our house.  I asked him if he remembered the poem from last night, and he said that he did but that he didn't want to write it down until we had the tree finished.  So, we made a tree.  I knew all that construction paper from Costco would come in handy someday!

Initially, we were going to put it up in the dining room, but I worried that the masking tape and the sun would eventually change the paint color, so we moved our creation to the basement door.  It fit perfectly, and both kids were really excited about it and thought it looked great.

I had grand plans to make an adorable sign using the sun and a couple clouds, but as it often goes with kids, I had to let my expectations go and follow the little man's creative trail.

His first little sign to go with the tree read, "Made by me".  I asked him if others were allowed to contribute to the tree and he said they were, so I suggested he modify it.  So he added, "And evreone!  Becuse Im good" (And everyone!  Because I'm good).

For some reason, he felt it necessary to add number labels to the tree.  I really didn't want him to do that, and I had to fight all my urges to stop him and make it look "perfect"; it's hard for me to let go of control like that sometimes, and this whole thing really ended up being an exercise in patience for me.

Ordinarily I would have made him write out his poem himself, but the leaf he made (that he was very excited about) was much smaller than it should have been for him to write on it.  I have incredibly small handwriting, so I stepped in and wrote it for him.  It isn't exactly the same as it was last night; the original version was much smoother and a bit longer, but it often happens that the first jolt of inspiration is nearly impossible to recreate.  Regardless, the poem that is currently on the tree is all his and remarkably awesome for a five year-old.  And here it is ...

Bedtime
by Baylor

Instead of staying up and doing bedtime math
I'm going to go to bed without a bath.

I'm gonna brush and floss
Then I'll get in bed and I might turn and toss.

Then I'm gonna turn from dreams to snores.
Then when my mom opens the door

I'll get up and go down and play
And today's the new day!

The other leaf is actually a song he wrote called, "1,2,3 Rock!"  Basically you count as fast and lyrically as you can to ten, yell, "Rock!" and then yell, "1,2,3 Rock!  Rock!  Rock!"  It's not quite as developed as his poem, but I do love to hear him sing so I'll take it.

Now that this tree is up, I can't wait to see what else the little man comes up with!