Nicknames and other such things

Little Man and I were driving to his last winter swim team practice when he announces that he wants me to call him by his nickname from now on.  I was a bit surprised but I usually call him by his nickname anyway.  I asked him why he wanted to switch to only his nickname and he informed me that 1.  It is shorter to write on all of his papers at school  2.  It sounds more grownup and 3.  It's just cooler, mom (said in a very grown up, how do you not understand this kind of tone).  So his nickname it is, for now.  Who am I to hold my kid back from being cooler and more grown up.

Speaking of that, Little Man put his foot down on his car seat situation.  I admit, that I have been very lax about switching him from his car seat to his booster seat.  Yes, I know.  He can switch when he is 4 and 40 pounds which was about 2 years ago but the seat we use for the 5 point harness is the exact same seat that we will use for the booster seat with seatbelt so I just didn't see the point in switching.  I felt like it was safer as the 5 point harness and he didn't really know the difference plus that meant any of the 3 kids could sit in that seat and switching around was easy.  But Little Man kept asking when he could have a booster seat and then he learned from his friends that he could have had it for the last 2 years and he explained to me that he was 6 and it was embarrassing to still be in a carseat.  So we made the switch this weekend and when he realized that it was still the exact same seat just a different strap system he was less impressed.  But on the way to swim team, I asked him if he was happy with his new seat and he informed me that it made him feel bigger and so he was very satisfied with the result.  His words. 

I groaned and said that I needed him to stay my little boy forever and he replied that no matter how big he gets, he will always be my little boy.  I melted at his sweet words until he clarified.  "Mama, you will keep getting bigger and I will keep getting bigger so I will always be littler than you"  Well, it is the thought that counts.