Hayden Saves my Day

Sometime at the beginning of March

I've been meaning to write about this experience for awhile, but I'm behind on everything these days.  This happened last month, when Bennett was about three weeks old.  Mom had gone home, and Arthur had gone back to work, and then had gone out of town for several days.  The day he got home I was pretty worn out.  Exhausted might be a better word.  And I hadn't showered in a few days.

Well, after dinner that night, Arthur and the kids were playing on the computer and I was trying to calm Bennett, who was pretty fussy those days.  It was so noisy downstairs, so I went up to my room with Bennett who was slightly less noisy.  I was rocking and bouncing and patting and trying everything I could to help him stop crying.  And after awhile of being hot, and sweaty and exhausted and listening to him cry, I was crying too.  Rocking and bouncing and patting and crying together.

And then Hayden came into my room and started chatting to me about something or other.  I don't remember what he was saying but at one point he looked at me and stopped.  Then he said, "Are those happy tears or sad tears?"  

"Sad tears." I answered.

"Why?"

"Because Bennett won't stop crying, and I'm so tired, and I really want to take a shower."

And then he said, "I can help."

I smiled through my tears and said, "Thanks, Hayden, that's really thoughtful of you."  

He said, "Okay, Mom, you go take a shower.  I have four activities I can do with Bennett.  I can sing him a song, I can read him a story, I can show him this toy and I can talk to him."

I cried some more and said, "Okay."

And I took my first shower in several days, and sweet Hayden kept coming in every few minutes with an update on Bennett.  "I read him a story, Mom.  He stopped crying for a minute, but then he started crying again."  "Mom, I sang him a song, and he liked it.  He's not crying anymore."  "Okay, Mom he's crying again, but he's still doing okay."  All through my shower he talked to Bennett, and came back and told me how he was doing.  And when I finished, Hayden showed me all of the activities he had done with Bennett.

And that's how Hayden saved my day.