Ups and Downs

Last night I made the awesomest brownies ever. Its a recipe box mix that combines chocolate chip cookie dough with brownies and it tastes sooo good. Then I put them in a roasting pan on top of the fridge, out of sight, out of reach, right? Not so much. This morning for breakfast Archer ate about a third of the batch of cookie brownies. When I discovered it I was mad enough to actually consider driving to school to yell at him about it. Then I realized how unreasonable that sounded. So I devised a better plan. Shelly and I will eat brownies for dessert in front of him. He already had his in the morning, we'll have some tonight without him. He can watch. I don't know, is it too much? Whatever. Hopefully he learns his lesson.

Guess what? He didn't. After they were in bed and I was in my room he snuck out and ate the last of the brownies that I'd left on the counter. That's it - drastic measures are about to be taken. I woke him up, brought him out to the kitchen and we had a little talk. He cried and apologized, I accepted his apology and told him how much I love him. Then I walked him back to his room and laid down with him in his bed. And that's when we had the best moment of our day. We talked about the airplane we could see from his window, and how maybe Dad was on that flight coming home. We talked about how he's the best boy ever and I'm the best mom ever. We told each other, "I love you," about a hundred times. It was the best ten minutes of my day. That boy. He makes me ache with love and five minutes later I feel like pulling my hair out.

In the middle of all of that, at supper time, Archer said something so nice to me... I had tried a new thing for supper and told the kids it was going to taste great. Ha! It DID NOT. I took one bite and told Archer he didn't have to eat it, it wasn't good. He took a BIG bite and as I watched (with my eyebrows raised, skeptical that he would swallow it) he said, "What?? Its PERFECT!" Another bite and he says, "Well, its ok." And by his third bite he finally admitted, "Its not good." But he did offer a suggestion for improvement next time, and he was trying so hard to be nice about the whole thing, I just had to laugh. Did I mention how my heart just aches with wanting for him? Wanting the very best for him and loving to the point of hurting. I love that kid.

(Photo of Arch courtesy of Denise)