Mommy?

The other night my husband brought our two oldest sons to our town's high school wrestling meet. Wrestling is a pretty big deal in our state and in our town so, being that he is a former wrestler himself, he tries to bring the boys to at least one or two meets each year in hopes that they will be as excited to join the team when they are old enough as he is. ;) Last year our boys were three and one so our oldest son went while our middle son stayed home. Since our youngest was still in utero at the time, I thoroughly enjoyed having some one-on-one time with my 'Mama's Boy' while my husband took my independent boy on an exciting adventure! At two-and-a-half, we decided to allow our middle son to decide for himself whether he wanted to go with dad or stay home with mom this year. Since he's always been very attached to me {and I may have bribed him with popcorn and a movie} I expected him to choose to stay home and have some extra cuddling time with me and his baby brother.

I was wrong.

At the very last minute, as he saw his big brother getting his shoes and coat on, he spoke those words that broke this selfish mom's heart: "I want go with Dad."

There was a struggle going on inside of him from the moment we first left the decision up to him. Wrestling and Ice Cream Sundaes with Dad? Movie and Popcorn with Mom? {Our kids never watch television so a movie is a big deal in our house!} In the end the allure of a wrestling match was just too much for our athletic-minded boy to pass up. From a young age he has been attracted to all things sports related and is always drawn to the chain-link fence to watch the local sports teams practice anytime we visit the park. So his choice did not completely shock me but as much as I hate to admit, it did disappoint me {especially since my youngest was already asleep}. But I kept myself busy since it's not as if there is a lack of things that need to be done around here and enjoyed some one-one-one time with my youngest once he woke up from his usual evening nap.

By the time my three adventurers arrived back home the kitchen was clean, the laundry was folded and I was sitting on the couch nursing my littlest, struggling to keep my eyes open. I heard the van pull up in the driveway, the sliding door being opened, and the side door being unlocked. Then I heard:

"Mommy?"

It was my 'Mama's Boy.' First one in the door. First one in the living room. Still bundled up in his red winter coat, he marched over to me with an expression of wonder and excitement on his sweet little face. He was practically bursting with anticipation to fill me in on this, one of his first adventures, independent of me. As much as I missed him for those couple of hours he was gone, experiencing his evening through his two-year-old description was so much better. He showed me the 'goodie bag' he had received at the diner as my husband took off his coat. Then he proceeded to show me each individual treasure it contained, looking up at my face to watch my reaction, eyes glowing, mouth grinning, as he named each individual item.

"Lollipop!"

"Tattoo!"

"Crayon!"

"Placemat!"

The sound of his voice and the look on his face: I will never forget that short, sweet little moment between him and me.