Kids are a pain, to a large extent. They constantly challenge for power and control. The bicker with one another about who gets the red popsicle. They scream to high heaven when the world doesn’t suit them- which is almost always. They are masters of confounding. They’ll ask simple question about things we as adults don’t give a second thought to; resulting in a flummoxing decision making process of whether to answer the question, whether the question is answerable, how to answer the question, etc.
But not infrequently, they do things that can’t help but make you smile from your head to your toes. The sort of thing where no matter what trials the child put you through during the day, it was all worth it for that fleeting moment of grace. The Wife had such an experience the other night.
On occasion, the Wife sings a lullaby to the lass before bed time. On this night, it was “You Are My Sunshine.” The lass always listens quietly and it always puts a smile on her face. When the Wife finished and said “Good night” to her, the lass asked simply:
“Mom, how come I make you happy when skies are gray?”
How to explain that the answer is because of questions like that?