Broken Hearted

Caeden had been invited for a sleepover with Reece tonight, and when he found out about it he nearly hyperventilated; he was so excited.  But, when Addie (Reece's sister) got sick at school and had to go home, we had to cancel the sleepover.  Caeden's teacher just delivered a message to him at school that he was supposed to ride the bus home instead of going with Reece.  

The kids came home on the bus while I was on the phone about church business.  I could see instantly that Caeden was upset and tearing up.  He whispered to me, "Am I still going?!" And when I shook my head no, he began full-out crying.   Clearly, he'd not received the full explanation of why he had to ride the bus home.  

I try hard not to be on the phone when the kids get home from school, but it was unavoidable today, and that was not good timing.  By the time I got off the phone, Caeden understood that there would be no sleepover, and he was completely broken-hearted!  I tried to talk to him about it, explain that Addie didn't want to be sick, offer for him to get to do something special with Daddy tonight instead, promise there would be other chances for sleepovers...But, he was so upset, he just cried and said thinks like, "I'm just so sad!  I'll never be happy again!  I don't want to do something special with Daddy!  Nothing is going to make me happy again!"  Oh my it was dramatic.

After a few minutes, I decided he'd had enough explanation, and I just needed to let him be sad for a while.  I told him he could cry on me, or go to his room and cry, but he needed to not be angry or destructive.  He happened to then remember he'd earned a new puzzle at school, so he got that out and focused on putting it together.  That helped.

Soon, the girls' friends arrived and they started playing together.  Fortunately, they included Caeden.  When Jeremy came home, he had stopped by the store for a few groceries and also picked up a little Lego Star Wars set for Caeden.  Well, that was more than enough to bring Caeden back to happiness.  He took it upstairs right away and put it together.  Daddy saves the day!!

After supper, he chose a Goofy dvd, and he and I snuggled up in my bed to watch it.  I fell asleep, but when it was over, he went back downstairs and watched another movie with Daddy and all the girls.  

I'm glad that, even though he was thoroughly broken hearted, it was easy to mend.