Half-pint's Teaches Momma to Be Like a Little Child...

Last night I had a difficult time keeping my cool while I was attempting to put Half-pint to bed. After a long day, we went the rounds about going potty and getting into pajamas-all the stuff that makes me absolutely crazy to deal with ALL the time-over and over again. I lost it and Half-pint lost privileges (including reading bedtime books AND the use of his THREE pillows, not to mention the threat of NO computer games all the next day); he even got his little bum swatted (I'm ashamed to admit that I totally lost my cool!). I left him stranded on his bed (with the threat of no computer games if he got off) while I put Quarter-pint down. When I came back into Half-pint's room 30 minutes later I was feeling pretty bad about my behavior. I scooped him into my arms and gave him a big hug. I asked him what he was thinking about and he silently touched the tip of my nose-"you Momma". "What are you thinking about me?" I was almost afraid to ask. With complete sincerity he said: "You are the best Momma in the world! I love you, Momma". I nearly came apart-after the poor treatment he received at my hand just a half-hour before he quickly and completely forgave and loved me anyway. What a shining example for his penitent Momma! What an amazing kid!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tonight while I was tucking Half-pint snugly into bed, he said "I want to meet Jesus." I was a little surprised because he's usually too silly to talk about Jesus, but I thought Great, I'll run with this as long as it lasts! We kept going with our bedtime routine, with a little silliness, but not the usual high jinks I expected. The conversation went on about like this:
"Mom, where does Jesus live?"
"At the temple."
"I want to see Jesus!"
Now, I'm getting curious..."Why do you want to see Him?"
"Because I never see him before. I want to see Jesus. Let's go to the temple and be there until it gets dark, then we go home and sleep in our beds, and we see Jesus at the temple."
"You need to be really good to see Jesus."
Groaning, "I can't be really good!"
"Well, you have to always TRY to be really good."
"I can't be really good when Quarter-pint hits me and always cries! ... I know!!! I have a plan! You have a mission-Mister Momma-your mission is to tell Daddy we need lots of wood, and he needs to buy lots of new paint-pink and blue paint, and all the tools-we need ALL of Daddy's tools! Tell Daddy to tell Aunt C6 that I need her help-I need help from everybody."
"Why do you need all that stuff and lots of help?"
"I need to build a booby-trap for Quarter-pint!"
"I'm not going to build a booby-trap for your brother!"
"But I need one for him because a CAN'T be really good to see Jesus when he hits my head and cries all the time."
"You can TRY to be good and not yell at your brother, he's still learning to be good, remember?"
"Oh, I can try to be good when he bugs me, then I see Jesus? I going to tell everybody at school that we can see Jesus if we be really good!"