job well done.

Every morning a fight erupts in the early morning hours between three small children in my very cozy {that’s my word for small } abode.

Every morning it goes something like this,

“OH NO NOT YOU! It’s MY turn to watch what I want to watch. I don’t WANT to watch Blue’s Clues. I don’t WANT to watch Kailan. I want to watch what I want to watch.”

And then there’s wrestling.  Followed by tears.

Every. Single. Morning.

This morning was a little different… It’s MLK Day. I have to work. I had no patience for fights over the t.v. – for goodness sake I was the only one showering and getting ready for the day because… I HAD TO GO TO WORK.

I offered my most adorable boy the opportunity to watch his show in my bedroom while I got ready for the day.

Goodbye Today Show. Hasta la vista, Matt, Meredith, Anne, and Al. Today I will not be able to mingle with you, for I am relinquishing my morning ritual in hopes for a much quieter prep time.

And then it happened.

I heard elevator music.

I heard SAXAPHONES playing.

And it was then that I knew…

It was another familiar family that I love just as much as my own and The Today Show…

The Cosby Show

I don’t know what made my seven year old stop at that channel, but it sucked me right in. I sat on my bed laughing like I did when I was seven. I kept looking over at my adorably sleepy-eyed little boy. Nothing. Not a smile. No a CRACK of a smile. He didn’t look back towards me at all. He kept trudging trying to find the humor in it all. But nothing.

And then I realized… he was sacrificing his morning {i.e. fifteen-minutes} of this unknown family for me. I turned to him and said, “Gee Ethan, thanks for watching this show with me, but if you’d like to change the channel now, I certainly will understand. I have to get ready now.”

Millisecond.

That’s how long his brain took to process the alleviation of his guilt. The only thing he said to me was, “You know I love you, mom.”

So much goes without speaking between people that know and love you. Small sacrifices seem big, especially by small little humans.

It was a slight affirmation that, although the toughest job I’ve ever had, being a mother is the best thing in the world. And perhaps, it is also a slight affirmation that I’m doing some things right with raising my little ones.