A proud mom moment

I took the boys to Sakinaw Lake on Thursday to see our family at their cabin and at the end of a very long and tiring day I had the nicest compliment given to me by a man at the ferry with us. Here's the story:

This nice man (somewhere probably late 40's, early 50's I'm guessing) was sitting just outside the little sitting area at Earl's Cove. My uncle dropped us off and we had a bit of a wait for the ferry so I did what I always do when I want to distract my kids....I feed them! I gave Jordie a pack of gummies and told him to take the wrapper to the garbage. On his way there he trips and bails hard. I run out of the sitting area and scoop him up all while James is asking him if he's okay and comparing his war wounds from his big fall on Monday. Then we laughed about it and I got my Jordie boy giggling again and James was hugging him and telling him he was going to be okay. I was probably the kind-of-inappropriate-mom that swore or said something I shouldn't have but it made him laugh so I was fine with it. I could see the guy smiling at me and laughing along with us.

We got up on the ferry and I fed them some more (because who isn't hungry after 4 hours in the water), and I attempted to wipe up Jordie's skinned knees and he screamed his handsome (and very tired) little face off...and then went back to eating and playing on the iPod (I had saved this distraction until the very end of the day so I could have the peace and quiet on the ferry!) Through the screaming all I could hear was James saying "it's okay buddy," he was just so good with him.

We make it through the quick ferry trip and we make our way down the stairs to the front of the ferry where we are going to walk off. At this point I can tell that Jordie is absolutely exhausted and I tell him that I need him to be a big guy and just do one last big walk for me up the hill to the van and then he could fall asleep on the way home. We also discovered that James's water bottle leaked in his backpack and I just laughed at him (because really, what's the point of being mad about it) and tell him "oh well, suck it up and carry it cause I'm not going to". We have a good laugh and then I feel this little tap on my shoulder and the nice guy from earlier says to me "I just have to tell you what a delight it is to have seen your boys tonight, they are such good little boys, and seeing you with them has just been a real delight. You are wonderful with them". I thanked him and felt my heart just soar. I was glad I had my sunglasses on because I could feel my eyes well up with tears. At this point in the day I myself was just exhausted and couldn't wait to get home and I was happy to hear that I had at least hidden my internal feelings of just being "done" and was able to show my boys (and this kind man) the sense of humor that I TRY to have with my boys on a day to day basis.

My boys drive me crazy sometimes, but I am really so proud of the little people that they are. They are polite and friendly and most of the time love each other like crazy and do anything they can to make sure that the other one is okay. I am a lucky mommy and I so appreciate when anyone lets me know that I'm doing a good job at the most important thing in the whole world. This kind man just made my night...and my whole week!

Here they are...just a few minutes before the man tapped me on my shoulder.