An Absolutely 100% Totally Completely Sweet Parenting Moment

Today I took Shelby and Noah through the car wash. Shelby always cries and I feel bad, but in a Syracuse winter (yes, it FINALLY snowed here. FINALLY! Yay!) where your car gets dirty so fast with the road salt and the sunny days are few and far between, you have to take your car wash opportunities when you can get 'em! Even it means skidding into preschool 10 minutes late because you went to the car wash instead.

Anyway, Shelby cries EVERY time. And I feel terrible about it every time. But I also want a clean car.

Today, when the car wash started up, her eyes were huge and welling with tears. I looked back at her and said, "Shelby, it will be okay." She nodded her little head. A minute later, I looked back at her and said the same thing, "Shelby, it's okay." She still had tears in her eyes, but she wasn't crying yet, and she looked at me and nodded. I did this several more times during the car wash (unfortunately for Shelby, I always get the super-ultra-mega-deluxe looooong wash and dry, nothing but the best for my beloved Beemer), and she held her tears in her eyes, didn't cry once, and just looked at me with huge eyes and kept nodding every time I said she would be okay, though I could tell how scared she was.

Now to be 100% honest, I'm not usually very sappy about my kids - most of the time I'm tossing them around upside-down on beds, putting gags in the toilet for them to find, pinching them on the bum, giving them Melvins with their underwear. I even put a disco ball up in our car. But today, with my brave little Shelby totally counting on me and looking only to me, her Mommy, to keep her little world together and safe ... I was overwhelmed at the realization at how much these little people trust us and need us and it was just a magical parenting moment for me. And as we exited the car wash, *I* was the one crying.


Silly sappy me. Time to go give Noah a Melvin or blow a raspberry on Shelby's fat little belly.