December 1, 2005 - Thursday
I may be imagining this, but it seems like Jeremy has been very gracious with me over the last few days. I have a theory, too, although it's certainly possible that it's all just my imagination and the result of a special little moment that I want to remember.

It happened last Saturday night, late at night, when we all went down to Chloe's house for a sleep over and poor Jeremy had an accident in the middle of the night. Naturally, he was pretty upset. It wasn't a bad accident as those things go and barely got his sleeping bag wet, but it was wet enough so he couldn't sleep in it anymore. It was about 2:30 in the morning and maybe he realized that he wasn't going to spend the rest of this much anticipated sleepover with the other kids. Maybe he was embarrassed that the others would know he had an accident. I couldn't really say.

Since Jeremy couldn't go back to his sleeping bag, he stayed with his mother and me in our bed for the rest of the night. And there was a moment when Jeremy and I were alone after his mother had set him down there, but before she was quite ready to return to the bed herself. Jeremy was still sniffling, but seemed to be trying to stop crying. It's usually difficult to tell with Jeremy just how much of that sort of snifling is for show, but I think he was pretty sincere this time. I was half asleep and wasn't about to come up with any brilliant words that would help him calm down, let alone feel any better, but I reached out and closed my adult hand around his little hand. That was it. I said nothing. His little body stopped heaving and he turned to look at me. He didn't say anything either, but there was a new hopefulness in his eyes that seemed to beg, "is it going to be all right?" It didn't take very long for his sniffling to stop.

I guess that little gesture worked so well because I usually do have something to say to the kids. I'm with them a lot and I'm often spewing out both wanted and unwanted advice. What's more, as the stereotypical father I'm probably stricter than their mother and almost certainly a little less sensitive from their perspective. All Jeremy seemed to need at that moment was a little reassurance and he was able to go back to sleep. Pleasantly, with Jeremy that means very little tossing and turning during the night, so his mother and I were able to go back to sleep, too.


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