Talan's Broken Heart

It was about an hour before Talan was going to go to his friend Tanner's birthday party when I asked him if he would like to help me wrap the present I had for him to take. He was really excited to help until he saw the gift.....a totally awesome red power ranger. Excitement quickly turned to tears as he declared that he didn't even have a power ranger and that he just wanted to keep this one and give his friend something different. Although it would have been much easier to just give in I thought I would let this be a teaching moment about how to be a good friend and that we don't always get what we want. Let me tell ya, that was a looooong hour as we waited for the party to start. My constant reply of "No" was repeatedly met with despaired sobs of how that was the only toy that he has every wanted. I finally gave him the option to go to the party with the present or stay home and I would take the present to Tanner by myself. Luckily he chose the first option and I think actually had a great time.

The next day Talan was happily ancipating the arrival of his friend Luke who was coming over to play. At the time he was supposed to get there Talan took his post at the front window to watch for him. About every 30 seconds he would ask "Mom, where is he? Why isn't he here yet? Why is he taking forever?, etc....After 1/2 an hour of this we found out that Luke wasn't going to be able to come and play that day after all. The tears and sobs began and I watched him go from being so excited to totally devastated. (It amazing how HUGE such little things are to kids). :.(
As the crying continued to excalate I asked Talan if he wanted to come sit on my lap and give me a hug. He climbed on and melted into my arms. As I began rocking him, I suggested that he stay here until he didn't feel sad anymore. He looked up at me with his big blue tear-filled eyes and whispered, "Mom, can I stay here forever?" Yeah, that was pretty much the sweetest moment ever. Unfortunately for me, "forever" to him meant until 3 minutes later when we had arranged for him to play with another friend.