So one night a while back we were watching the news and one of the stories was about the boy who lost his dad at a ranger game when he reached for a ball over the railings. They then showed a clip of the boy throwing the opening pitch at the game a year after his father had died. My eyes started welling up with tears thinking about the sweet dad trying to catch a ball for his kid and dying instead, and the young boy loosing his dad in such a tragic way! It also hit me how upsetting that had to be for the player who tossed the ball into the crowd! He was trying to do something so kind and it ended up so horrific!! Von seeing me cry asked, "mom, what's the matter?" I told him the basic story, He then looked up at the t.v. where the boy and his mom were standing on the baseball field and he said, "mom that's not sad! Look.he still has his mom!" A little taken back by his flippant response I thought I'd drive home the point by making it a little more personal, so I said, "Von it's very sad, what if that was daddy? Wouldn't you be sooooo sad?" with out missing a beat and says, "no, you'd still be here! Besides, he'd be in heaven! He'd be fine!"
For the record, Daniel would be missed terribly!!!!! The boys may not realize it but Daniel's way more likely to fly them like an airplane, carry all three at a time, camp w/ them in a tent in the back yard, let them take long baths with out rushing them because we're in a hurry, play video games w/ them, buy them the "little hot dogs" they love (i think the very idea of a Vienna sausage is repulsive), change words in songs to make them funny, and read books in crazy voices! Yes, he's irreplaceable....even by a mom!
