One morning recently Ry Ry had the garage door clicker and closed the door on my car as I was backing out. I heard the door crash on my car roof and yelled at him to stop and give me the opener NOW! He thought he was in big trouble and began to whimper, as I angrily assessed the damage to my car. Then I peeked in my rearview mirror and saw him buckled in his carseat. There was my darling five year old – red hair, freckles, his spiderman outfit sticking out from under his elastic-waist jeans…. And I crumbled.

I pulled him into my arms for a love.

When I asked him why he had the clicker, he told me it was because he didn’t want his blanky to get stuck inside the house. Then we discussed all the ways we could get his blanky out of the house, even if it was locked and the garage door was shut. His five-year-old logic was so tender. I should have guessed it was about his blanky. This is the boy who doesn’t let me wash it without him giving it a kiss and a hug.
I am not tooting my own motherhood horn, but I am so glad I was able to see through the frustration to realize what was really going on, when he shut the garage door on my car. Just a sweet little boy who wanted to make sure he could get back to his blanky