Tender Heart

This evening we went out to dinner. As we were sitting there, Little One's eyes got super huge and I could see fear and panic on his face. He then says in a defensive voice, "Baby Brother!" and points. There is a couple walking out of the restaurant with a baby carrier. Bless his little heart - he thought they were leaving with his baby brother. The idea that there is more than one baby and baby carrier in this world is so surprising to him. The other day at Bible study when he saw the three additional baby carriers in the front room he proclaimed: "So many baby brothers!!".

A couple of days ago we were in Target, and he saw a Christmas display. He wanted to go see it - and in order to do that we had to walk through the Halloween isle. We walked by a tall figurine that looked like the grim reaper. Little One stopped in his tracks and said "Mama - Santa scarried me!" And now, he is convinced that the Grim Reaper is Santa, and that he is very scary. Oh dear.

And today, he was on a hug kick. I was chopping up pineapple, Hubs was trying to fix the grill. Little One just started hugging. "Hug Mama! Hug Dada! Hug Baby Brother!" Running back and forth, giving lots of hugs. And they were genuine sweet hugs. While hugging he'd say "oh, so sweet..." Then, he says: "Watch this Mama! I hug tree!" and he ran out the back door, hugged a tree, and came running back in. The tree got lots of good tree huggin lovin tonight...and I had to smile.

I love these moments of sheer innocent sweetness. I have to be careful, because I find that I can steamroll right pass them because of how driven I am to get things done. Everyday I find myself asking God to give me sensitive ears to his little voice. Little One is discovering the world, and I want to take it all in with him. It's these sweet things I want to remember down the road, rather than how clean my house was while he was growing up.

Give me a tender heart, just like my son's Dear Lord...