The kindness of children

** This is a "guest post" by my husband, Ricky. He played Mr. Mom this past weekend while I was in Michigan and Chicago and he did a really great job. How many moms can say that their husbands venture out with two young kids under 3 years old BY HIMSELF, taking them to the zoo, shopping, and to a park (while also managing to clean the house for a showing)???!!! I'm so proud of him! And am so happy that the boys shared such a wonderful time with their daddy. **

I felt the need to share this story. Every once in a while you get an insight into the openness and acceptance that kids have for one another.

Taryn was out of town this weekend so it was me and the 2 monsters. To keep them occupied, I took them to the park on Sunday. I picked a park I thought nobody would be at so that Aiden could try and climb all over the place without other kids running over him. We played and had lunch for about an hour, just us three. Aiden was crawling all over the playground and going through the tunnels. He actually went down the slide twice by himself - big step for him.

A little later, two boys and their parents showed up. One was 8 and one 11. I thought they wouldn't want much to do with two "babies", but the 8 year old was really good with and talked to Aiden a lot.

Ethan, being the social guy he is, walked up and said "What's your name?" The boy responded "Noah". Then Ethan continued, "I'm Ethan, this is daddy and that is my brother Aiden. Be careful with him, he's my brother."

Another 10 minutes pass and I notice that both boys, but mostly Noah, are really looking at Aiden's hands. Noah asked why Aiden's fingers are so swollen. So I told him about how Aiden's hands looked when he was born and that we travel to Dallas for surgeries. He asked if they would always be so swollen or if they would one day look like his. I told him they would look less swollen, but would always look different, but that it's okay because we are all born different. He then said "I'm glad they will look better. I don't want him to have to walk around like that."

I just thought that was the sweetest thing. The kids didn't say "His hands look weird - yuck" or "His fingers are disgusting", they were so nice and genuine.

About 5 minutes later, Noah asked "Why is his index finger so crooked? I can't even get mine to do that". I explained that since his fingers were at one point all stuck together, it grew like that but that the doctors were going to fix it in a few years. He said "That's good, but it doesn't matter because he is still the cutest baby in the whole world."

And we agree :)