MY BABY BOY'S HEART
My dear husband informed me at 9:45 last night, as he's headed to bed and I'm folding a load of laundry, that he will be leaving at the crack of dawn to travel to a client meeting in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Hidden message: I get to get myself and the kids around all by my lonesome in the morning. Oh, goody, goody, goody. I live for these days! Not.
So this morning, I rousted myself out of bed, got showered, got breakfast ready for our children, woke them up, urged them to eat, reminded them about getting ready five times, and then proceeded out the door to start the car. Because last night, while we were sleeping, it iced and snowed and became so frigidly cold I could have sworn we had teleported ourselves to the Polar Ice Cap.
Coming back into the house after starting the car, I noted that my son, Jared, is standing in the kitchen with no shirt on, the Roosa Student Telephone Directory in one hand and the phone up to his ear. Oh, and it's 7:30 a.m. Here's how the conversation went from there:
Me: (barely contained shout) "Jared! Who are you talking to at this un-Godly hour of the morning?"
Jared: "Uh, my friend, Brayden."
Me: "Give me that phone." (grabbing phone, shooting disdainful look at my oldest child).
Me: (into the phone): "Yes, hello, this is Angela Henderson, Jared's mom, to whom am I speaking?"
Brayden's father: "Yes, this is Brayden's dad."
Me: "I am so sorry about this. I went out to start the car and Jared must have thought that this was a good time to get on the phone without my knowledge. You all must be trying to get ready for school just like we are."
Brayden's father: "No. No, we're not. Brayden won't be at school today, because he's staying with his mother. Brayden's grandmother passed away last night."
Me: (light breaking through cloud, everything coming clear, becoming the proverbial cartoon jackass) "Oh. I am so sorry for your loss. Can you ask Brayden to call Jared back sometime tonight or this weekend? And I'm really sorry for the interruption."
Brayden's father: "No problem. I'll have Brayden call Jared back."
As I hung up the phone, I realized that my sweet baby boy was just checking on his friend whose grandmother was a really sick lady yesterday and as of this morning, is no longer with us. And then, it hit me that my own sweet baby boy knows precisely what his little friend is going through because a little over a year ago, he too lost his grandmother to cancer.
My fury melted away as I explained to Jared that it was very kind of him to call and check on his friend, but not during a time when I need him to be getting around for school. We also discussed the etiquette of phone calling before 9:00 a.m., meaning that we don't call anyone before that time unless someone has died or it's a real emergency, and that his father and I would prefer to know who he is calling before he uses the phone.
And I learned a very valuable lesson about my precious boy's heart.
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