bad news...good news

in the wee hours of the morning last august, gibson decided to fall out of bed and break his clavicle. feeling horrible that our son had broken a bone, steve and i kicked ourselves for taking off his bed rail. he had fallen out of bed so many times before and a hug and a kiss usually made everything better...but not this time. we found ourselves dwelling on how we messed up. feeling sorry for him and looking for parenting 101 classes on online.

with his arm tucked tightly into his shirt and guilt still weighing us down, we sent gibson off to his first day of school. what a blessing it turned out to be. on my next day to work i was approached by the mom of one of gibson's friends. she asked me what happened to gibson and told me that her daughter came home and told her, "mom, the bad news is that gibson broke his arm. the good news is that i have two so i can help him!"

i have come to learn through the stories gibson tells me about school that his teachers often will say the bad news is...but the good news is... . what a wonderful way to acknowledge that something stinks but there is always a positive to come out of it. so after being up with a sick boy last night, i thought i would give it a try. focus on the positive. focus on the positive. focus on the positive. right?

the bad news is that elliott was up all night puking up everything he had eaten the day before. and yes the day before was fat tuesday. and yes elliott loves to eat. and after he had gotten rid of everything he continued to dry heave for the rest of the night.

the good news is he was such a trooper! he would seldom cry and simply want me to rub his back and cuddle with a fresh new blanket.

the bad news is i had to go in early to make sub plans and try to occupy gibson while i did this.

the good news is that after i got everything together in my room, gibson took me on a date to mcdonalds. daddy had given him his wallet, which he stored in his cargo pants, twenty dollars and told him the rules for being a gentleman. he ordered for us and proudly paid. what a precious impromptu date.

the bad news is that elliott is home sick and couldn't go to school today.

the good news is that i get him all to myself to cuddle with all day long.

as a recovering pessimist, i think i like this bad news...good news business.