Saturday, January 17, 2015

A Work in Progress

The other day Lenny came up to me while Carolina was having her nap and said, "Mama, I want to pray the rosary." The cuteness of his face and voice and skinny little body was just too much. Of course I wanted to weep, seeing this as some great foretelling of my son's future saintliness. 

So of course he needed to get all set up like we do whenever we pray altogether as a family. We got the old wooden rosaries down off the hooks where we keep them and lit the candle and sat down with a bowl of frozen berries for Lenny. I suspect this was the main reason for his request since I usually give him a bit of a snack after each decade to keep him from kicking Chris's glasses off his head or knocking the candle over with his wiggly body. 

I just cannot take all the cuteness. But... Sometimes I just feel like I want to lay on top of him and just hold him down until all the craziness stops. He can get really rough and he loves to snap at me, which really stings because his little comebacks and nasty remarks are all learned from the master of snarky comments- mama. He is a little mirror and everything I do whether good or bad is reflected right back at me and it can be painful to see what ugly habits I am teaching him and even though I try my best to change it's clearly a work in progress. 




But every once in a while such goodness blooms in him that it surprises me. He loves to do little things to please Chris, Carolina, and me. Like for Christmas he wrapped up his own toys to give one to each of us. He was absolutely delighted with himself. His smile lights up the whole world and although he has his moments, (what three year old doesn't?) he is such a happy boy full of such love for life. 




I pray every day to rise to the occasion of mothering my children. They deserve a saint but I'm all they've got. I believe God has a reason for it. Thank you, God. 

No comments: