Appropriately on Mother's Day

Oh, Ant.

Ant's friend's dad did something stupid and is likely going to prison.  Ant is pretty upset that he will likely lose his friend, but also very upset because he knows what it's like to be taken away from your family and sent to foster care.  Ant actually has no idea how lucky he was to get such great foster parents and to only be there a week before being able to go live with his other parent.  He doesn't know that it doesn't normally work like this.  He said he feels bad for his friend because he doesn't miss his mom that much but he thinks about his sisters all the time.  Then he started to cry.

I think he misses his mom but he rarely talks to her, almost never sees her, and I'm filling in that role.  I would hate for her to see this and be sad because I know he does miss her- but he has me.  There's a big gap where siblings used to be.

I hugged and comforted him and we talked for a while.  He cried for his friend and his own loss.  I don't want him to forget what it's like to be a kid on the receiving end of irresponsible decisions made by parents, so I told him that while he may not be able to help his friend, he can be a good friend.  And when he becomes a teenager- not that far from now- he can make more careful choices and not do this to his own kid.

I told him how proud I was of him today and how much Grandma liked his homemade card.  It was so cute.  He was so tired from the overnight skating party that he lost all spelling skills.  The front of the card said:

HAPPY MOTHER'S

Inside said:

Love, Ant
DAY!
With all my hert hearet love

At the Mother's Day brunch at Topaz Lodge, Ant was still exhausted and started leaning on Chris.  Chris  got a bowl of ice cream and they shared it.  Chris started messing with Ant, trying to feed him but swerving the spoon into Ant's cheek, his forehead... Ant smacked the spoon away which attracted a warning look from me.

"We are still in a restaurant," I said.

Elaine added, "Yeah, Christopher." and Ant goes, "Yeah, I'm not the only one with a mom here, Daddy."

It was hysterical for the best of reasons.

So Ant and I giggled about the card and he assured me that he can normally spell heart, just not that night.  I was glad to send him to bed in a better mood.

"I'm going to grab a Snoopy Peanut book," he said.  This is what he calls them, which is why his email is snoopypeanut.  Then he recited his email password.

"I know it from the back of my head."