He REALLY Knows How To Get Me

The other night I was putting B down, and we had this conversation:

B: Do you want to have a sleepover in my room tonight?
Me: I can't tonight, baby.  I still have to shower and wash clothes before I can go to bed.
B: Come sleepover after you do all that.
Me: Why?  I wouldn't be with you when you fell asleep.  I know you don't like falling asleep alone.  You wouldn't even know that I came back into the room.
B: But you'd be the first thing I saw when I woke up tomorrow.  That's why.

He had the most angelic look on his face when he said that!  He wasn't trying to con me; he was serious.  I told this story to my mom this afternoon and she said, "Holy cow! Does he really know how to get you or what!" She laughed.  Then she said, "But seriously, he is amazing and it's because of his parents.  You two are doing an amazing job raising that boy with so much love.  You're wonderful parents."

I'm tearing up now typing that.  Validation from your own parent, no matter how good or how bad a parent they were to you, means more, I think, than validation from just about any other source.  I know I reap what I sow in B and I beat myself up over all the wrong/bad/negative/imperfect things I do that will affect him for the rest of his life.  But my mom made me realize that I am good, I am a good person, I am a good mother.  The seeds we sow each and every day in our son are not bought at the store nor created in a lab.  They are our seeds; they are pieces of us that we sow in our son.  What and who he is is a reflection of what and who we are.  Yes, ownership is on us for things he does that hurt/shock/insult/embarrass others.  But we also own every complement/admiration/laugh/wonder he receives.  There are so many more of the latter than the former.

We are amazing parents, proudly raising this amazing boy with love, laughter, thoughtfulness, all the best that is in us, because this amazing boy, this gift from God, shows us the way.  Yes, we reap what we sow and the hubs and I are, evidently, pretty damn good seeds.