The Best Mother's Day Gift

It's not news that the best gifts often don't come with wrapping paper and ribbon.  Earlier this week my son Beanie called to ask me my plans for the weekend.  I reminded my absent-minded son that his Dad and I were going out of town for the 1/2 marathon.

The original plan was for our whole little family to go.  We even invited the girlfriends, but the our plans got derailed when we realized it was Mother's Day weekend and the girls wanted to (understandably!) be with their Moms. Beanie then got his job at Disney and would be working part of the weekend.  Shmoo said he would go with us, gladly.  So all was not lost, just a new plan.

Last weekend at the Relay for Life event we found out that Shmoo's friend who was going to watch Emily for us had a scheduling conflict with his work. This week we couldn't find anyone else to stay at the house either. Shmoo opted to stay home so we wouldn't have the expense of kenneling Em or just leaving her by herself and only staying one night at the race.  Not great, but practical.

I was wondering aloud to GG on our drive to the race destination how our trip got to be so different than we originally planned.  I told GG I felt bad when Beanie called because he found out he was off on Saturday, his GF was working and he had planned to come home and stay over on Friday because he wasn't working until Saturday evening.  GG shook his head because Bean is notorious for forgetting what's going on.  Anyway, I told GG I felt a little bit guilty and bummed out that I wasn't home with my kids when they made an effort to spend time with me for Mother's Day.

Now you all know from this blog that I spend time with my sons frequently. Even with Beanie 90 miles away at school, we see him at least once a month and talk on the phone several times a week. Obviously, it's not like I never seem him. Shmoo still lives with us and is a part of our daily lives, but it's Mother's Day weekend and I felt weird not being with them.

But guilt knows no logic.  The guilt got a little worse when I spoke with Shmoo late yesterday afternoon and he seemed a little down.  No plans for a Friday night, home by himself with only Emily for company.  Okay it doesn't sound so bad when you are my age, but when you are 19 it pretty much sucks.

About an hour later Bean called.  He had called his brother (on his own!) and decided if he couldn't be with me, he would go spend time with his brother and stay over and they could hang out.

It's just the best gift I could ever receive.  While I still feel sad to miss a Mother's Day with the boys, knowing that they are there for each other is just, well, I have no words.