A Spring of Joy

Monday night my parents and I were having supper with the kids. Asher spends most of suppertime talking incessantly and often it’s mindless jabbering, but most nights I work hard at staying focused and talking with him. Not that night. I felt poorly from my last chemo treatment, and our supper was Italian. Need I say more? You don’t mess with an Italian momma and her food! Adam brought our supper (that man should open a restaurant!), and I was so caught up in the delectable flavors of every bite I put in my mouth (that’s the delicate way of saying stuffing my face), that I had totally shut out Asher’s constant talking. Micah; however, had not.

Toward the end of our meal, Micah, who also had been stuffing his face (I don’t have to be delicate when describing Micah eating), sighed, put his fork down and looked pointedly at Asher. “Ash, you are bugging my ears when you talk so much.” he said. Then just as forcefully as he had put it down, he picked up his fork and took another bite of tomato. I think I nearly choked on my tortellini as did my parents. It was one of those times as a parent where you know you need to take advantage of the situation to train your child. I knew I was on the brink of a great opportunity to teach Micah about speaking kindly to Asher and how saying things like that might make Asher feel.

Monday night I was not a good parent. All I could do was laugh. Out loud. Hard and long. I did manage to ask Micah where he had heard that, because I could at least rest in knowing he hadn’t heard it from Brian or me. His response was to shrug, grin, and say, “It came from my head.” Fortunately, Asher was too busy talking to even hear what Micah said, so no feelings were hurt. I tried to tell Micah that it wasn’t kind to say things like that to other people, but I don’t know how effective I was considering I was shaking so hard trying to control my laughter.

Score: Micah, 1–Mommy, 0. Ahhhh, living in Micah’s world is such an adventure.