Beauty Lies in Forgiveness

Ryan was out of town this past weekend.  At some point during any of his absences, Jude and I usually have what Ryan calls a "come to Jesus moment."  Jude throws a master fit and I'm left to deal with it.  (Of course I also usually end up second-guessing how I have dealt with it.)

This happened early on in Ryan's absence this weekend.  When it was over, Jude was in bed and asleep by 7:30 PM.  And I was regretting that the sun had set on us without any forgiveness.

At 9 PM, Jude woke up crying for a drink of water.  Then 10 minutes later he had a scratchy toenail that needed to be cut.  Then 10 minutes later he was out of bed for no reason whatsoever.  (In the meantime, I was trying to paint the bathroom.)  Jude asked for the pear he had originally requested before his 7 o'clock fit and never got.  So he ended up taking a full hour to eat a pear outside the bathroom while I finished my painting...

In an effort to make amends (I like to think) he suddenly said, "Mommy, you looked so beautiful in that blue dress."  He was talking about my bridesmaid dress for my sister, Mary Jo's wedding 2 weeks ago.

"Thank you, Buddy."  I replied.

"And Ellen was so pretty in her white baby dress."

"Yes," I agreed.  "And how about you?"

"I looked so AWESOME in my tuxedo!!!!!"

A bit self-centered, but sorrowful nonetheless.