Grace and Irony

Parenting is full of moments that are equal parts grace and irony.  I like that sentence.  But I also think it's true.  For example:

After one of the play practices at the end of last week I asked Liam about how he delivered his line.  He casually explained that he had missed his line completely.  Allen, who had been with him at practice, explained that one of the baby angels ("the littlest" who is, in fact almost the exact same size as Liam but a year or two younger) tripped while the group was headed onstage.  She was a little upset, but fine by the time they took their places.  Liam, on the other hand, was upset.  So much so that he finally had to leave the stage.  Allen helped him calm down backstage, but he didn't make it back until a later scene.

Fast forward to Sunday when I was painfully exhausted but toughing it out at practice while Allen went grocery shopping.  It was the first dress rehearsal and during the intermission time, when the baby angels are supposed to change into their pageant costumes I found Liam and the other boy baby angel in the "green room" playing with a tablet.  I got them to the dressing room and got Liam into his costume (I had the baby with me - thankfully other cast members were very helpful).  Then I found one of the directors and mentioned to her that these boys might need a little help with costumes and I wasn't sure I'd always be available to do it.  As we went down the stairs she mentioned the upset episode and said that they all thought it was very cute.  Meanwhile Liam had bounded on down the stairs.  I said, "He's very empathetic - which you wouldn't know right now."  He was standing at the bottom of the stairs saying "C'mon Mom! Come!  Hurry up!" very insistently.  I won't say yelling because we have a very low tolerance for yelling in our family, but you get the idea.

Maybe what I'm saying is obvious, but just in case it's not I'll spell it out.  The grace part is that the child is so cute, and usually so sweet, that his (possibly over-the-top) emotional reactions are met with smiles and sympathy.  The irony is that just when that's happening he's being demanding and impatient.

Maybe I'll write up some other examples another time.  Probably should just post this now.  I'll load a couple of pictures for good measure.  These are the ones I wanted to put up yesterday.