A Sad Adventure

Today our big kid wanted to go on a sad adventure. He was feeling pretty sad ~ and he had just cause. Momma had just authorized Daddy to take little brother and sister away for snow cones without him.

At first he couldn't believe it. He sat staring at the plentiful remains of his chicken and rice dinner aghast. Then he forcefully rammed a few mouthfuls into his mouth almost choking through his tears in a desperate last ditch attempt to reverse the after-dinner proceedings and 'bring back Daddy'.

His broken 'Is Daddy coming back to pick me up?' undid me. I said and signed 'sorry' a million times over that he felt so very sad, but that it still didn't change anything - I wasn't sorry that he couldn't have a snow cone.

These moments would be easier if he wasn't such a good kid. Somehow it's less emotionally draining having to discipline the 'naughty' one. Probably because that one doesn't give a monkeys about the consequences. In fact he's a 'chase me chase me' kid ~ he's lucky that Momma's not the spanking kind.

Sawyer on the other hand is such a sweetheart I hardly ever feel it necessary to 'teach him a lesson' so it was hard to follow through this afternoon. But I'd already laid it out for him: eat your dinner, then afterwards we can go and get a snow cone! Not too complicated a challenge ~ but still an ultimatum if you tip it upside down. And once the gauntlet has been thrown down, no matter how much you want a snow cone yourself, it's parental suicide to not follow through.

I wouldn't care, but no one else had a problem with dinner. In fact our new one pot recipe is such a big hit with the majority of clan Bisett, our poor S-boy may be missing a few more snow cones this summer!

Anyway - after the hysterical sobbing subsided he asked for a hug. Then while I was hugging him he asked if I would make him happy again. He couldn't have hurt me more if he'd tried! I asked him how and he told me he wanted to go on a 'sad' adventure.

So off we went. But just as we were leaving the deck he changed his mind and decided he wanted to go on a 'happy' adventure. I said I thought that was a great idea, then suddenly he stopped in his tracks and spun around and said,

"No! I've got a GREAT idea! Why don't we go on a sad happy adventure?" You can only imagine the rising inflection at the end of that excited exclamation.

"Like this..." he continued, then proceeded to frown then smile then frown then smile. You've gotta love this kid.

We walked a little ways before he turned round and said earnestly "Are you doing it?"

I wasn't, so I joined him frowning and smiling and frowning and smiling, and together we went on the best sad happy adventure I've ever been on.