So Shines a Good Deed...

Remember in Willy Wonka (the Gene Wilder version) at the very end, when Charlie returns the Everlasting-Gobstopper, and Wonka's hand covers it so very gently in reverence of the child's pure heart? Such was my mommy moment last night...

Yesterday, I turned 43. God bless my poor herniated disk-afflicted husband; he was laid up all weekend -- thusly preventing the annual "twins-and-dad-out-for-mama-gift-shopping" tradition.

On his way home from the back doctor yesterday, Scott managed to pick up not only his prescriptions (whew!) but an adorable pair of PJs adorned with pink flamingoes...to replace the ones I'd left at none other than the Flamingo Hotel Las Vegas a few weeks earlier, along with a loving, lovely card.

Darren, suddenly bereft at the idea that he had no "present" for Mama, ran to the kitchen and removed the above pictured "Reading Award" from the bulletin board. Redeemable for a personal pan pizza, he had extracted the coupon with such pride from his backpack mere hours earlier.

Somehow in a moment of maternal fortitude I still cannot explain, I managed to stave off the reflexive tears, express my gratitude, and declare the need for a "Mommy and Son Pizza Date."

Still reeling from the generous gesture this morning, Scott said, "I love how Darren mentally inventoried what he had of value that you might like."

It may only be a piece of thumbtack-pierced paper, but it undeniably symbolizes what I value in Darren.