You must be a mom!

As Ben, Linkin, and I were driving home from dinner last night I looked down at my shirt. It was covered in sugar (the rim of my strawberry lemonade glass had been dipped in sugar) and had food smeared on each of my shoulders. I shook my head as I tried to wipe some of the food off. I sighed and looked at Ben. He got a big smile on his face and said, "You must be a mom!" I couldn't help but return the smile and giggle a bit to myself as I thought, "Yes I am!" My "mom" clothes are not much of a fashion statement, but one that I will accept and proudly own as I experience the joy and happiness I feel when I see Linkin smile. He lights up the world! He truly is a bit of heaven on earth.

Not only did I "look" like a mom yesterday, but I also experienced true emotions of a mom—panic, worry, and guilt, just to name a few. You see, yesterday Linkin had his first "major" accident. Here's how it happened. I was making soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and had just finished putting the soup and Ben's sandwich on the table. I called Ben over to let him know lunch was ready. Linkin was "helping me" in the kitchen like usual—crawling around under my feet, getting into the cupboards, and pulling out all of my kitchen towels and utensils. As I was putting my sandwich together on the stove to cook, I noticed Linkin scooting along over to the kitchen table where I assumed he would go over to Ben to beg for food (something he does almost every time we eat). Then suddenly I hear Linkin screaming in pain and look over just in time to see that he had stood up next to the table and reached far enough to grab my bowl of hot soup which had spilled all down him! I instantly felt like I wanted to throw up. Ben immediately grabbed Linkin trying to wipe off the soup, ran to the sink where we soaked Linkin with cold water. He of course was screaming and crying like crazy. We got his clothes off a quickly as possible (his shirt was still super hot while we were hosing him down) and you could see his whole arm, the left side of his face and neck, and his chest were bright red. It was HORRIBLE! We kept rinsing him with cool water for several minutes then wrapped him in a blanket to give him loves and comfort him. Although I know he was in some pain, he recovered surprisingly quickly! We kept our eye on him and about 30 minutes later noticed two small blisters had developed on his forearm. He seemed a bit fussy, but was obviously exhausted from the event and fell asleep in my arms some 45 minutes later. As I sat there holding him looking at him, I was really beating myself up for not preventing the accident from happening. That soup had been so hot! I can only imagine the pain that he felt and wished so badly it had happened to me rather than the beautiful, innocent, sweet boy who was now sleeping in my arms. Needless to say, the day was rather emotional for me but I was reminded how truly blessed I am to be a mom!

The good news is that Linkin wasn't seriously hurt and his blisters are healing quickly. Kids sure are resilient (thank goodness!)!

Pictures taken today