Tender-Hearted

The Boss pitched a royal fit last night and when I told him I was sick of his behavior he said rudely, "Well, I'm sick of you." Way to express yourself, kiddo, and by the way no ice cream. He cried a little bit about the ice cream and then talked to himself for about fifteen minutes, "I'm so mad right now. I'm really mad at you. I'm not talking to anybody any more. I want ice cream so I'm not talking to anybody. I'm just going to be really mad. That is so rude. I really want ice cream."

Pretty funny since it was a "toilet-talk" because he happened to be in the bathroom on the pot at the time.

Thankfully, he is generally a sweet boy even though he can be pretty stubborn and strong-willed. It's important to him to make things right immediately. While he was laying in bed he said several times, "I am so sorry, Mommy." and crawled over so he could say right into my face "Mommy, I apologize you."

I'm so glad he is such a good-hearted guy even with the kinds of language and behavior he has had swirling around him from other kids for almost five years. I'm as proud as can be that he is polite and loving and so fond of his aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. My only explanation is that God has answered my prayers and protected him from negative influence of some of our most troubled and angry kids. I kept him close to me when he was small but now he holds his own pretty well. He told Squeaker the other day, "You don't have to be so rude to me." Although when she stuck her tongue out at him later, he responded in kind. He knows to just walk away from a situtation if the big kids get mean or rude.

I worry that his good-natured little self will be ruined by the chaos that we seem to live with but, on the flip side, I do hope that somehow it teaches him to be kind, patient, and forgiving.

I think we're all finding that it's extremely hard to actually live the aftermath of past trauma day to day even for those of us who have been given the grace and desire to help hurting kids. My greatest hope is that we are not creating more of them by adding almost "normal" kids to our crazy bunch.