Lovely

   Jonah can be an extremely mushy kid. I am pretty sure he tells me half a million times per day that he loves me. Oh no - I'm not complaining! Just sayin', is all. When he is very happy or content he becomes particularly amorous. For example, he is very likely to say he loves me if he is happily munching chocolate M&Ms and watching his favorite super hero cartoon. Hence, the stage was set for some real sap at on the onset of this story.

     We were making soup. As do most kids, this one loves helping in the kitchen. He had pulled up a chair next to the stove and was gleefully stirring as I chopped the veggies. It is unfortunate that in order for this story to make any sense I have to announce to the entire world that I had been in a spat with my husband earlier that day....but alas, it is necessary. So yea, we'd been in a little spat.

Jonah stirred, I chopped, and I said to him,
"Hey Jojo, I'm sorry about getting in that little fight with dad. That was naughty and I'm very sorry."

"Ah, mom, you don't need to say sorry for that!"

"Well, I would prefer to say it. I got angry and didn't behave very nicely."

Jonah kept stirring and chuckled, shaking his head the way an old granny does when she understands something that she knows her young grandchild cannot.
 "You", he said,"are a lovely, lovely girl."

I knew it was risky business to hold fast to my ground when such a compliment was at stake, but good mothering demanded it, so I replied,

"Thank you, Jonah, but it just wasn't lovely to be like that."

Jonah: "Mom! Sometimes even lovely people get angry!"

Me (stubborn...): "Well, it is not lovely to be naughty!"

Jonah, sighing, "Ok, yea. But you are lovely because you are sorry."


And I remembered that less than four short years ago I gave birth to this wise old owl and my mind was boggled.

THE END