I love my son!

I love my son! I love the way his mind works. I love his childish innocence, but the spark of intelligence that lurks behind every conversation we have. I love his questions, even though I find them so hard to answer. His thirst to understand the world in his own way. What can I say, I’m madly in love with everything that makes him the neat kid that he is.

Last night I tried explaining cancer to my 5-year-old.

He asked me “Why do you keep going to visit Grandma, but we have to stay with Daddy’s parents? I want to visit Grandma too.”

I told him, “Grandma is in the hospital right now. And you have runny noses and coughs. I can’t take you to see her because she might catch your cold and she needs to stay healthy so her body can get better. But, you could probably come with me on Saturday. I think your cold will be gone by then.”

Then he asked me why she was in the hospital so I told him that she had to have an operation. He asked me why. So I told him it was because she had cancer.

“What is cancer?”

“Well, cancer is a disease that makes people really sick. Grandma’s cancer is something that is growing in her stomach that the doctor had to take out to help her get better.”

Then my son, my beautiful little soul, said, “Like when I was growing in your stomach and the doctor cut you open to take me out?”

I smiled at him and said, “no, not like that. Cancer is a bad thing that has to come out to keep her healthy. You were a good thing that I wanted in my stomach.”

I watch my son’s face, seeing the wheels turning in his brain, as he comes to his own conclusions.

“Oh!” he says. “Cancer is the opposite of children!”

Close enough!