A little "pay check"

He has said "Luv ooo too, mum!" 

lots.  

But it's always been a reply.  

A response to my initiation of feeling sharing.  

My idea, he'd just agreed to play along.

 Then tonight, as I knelt by his bed just letting him look at me through droopy eyelids, in a sleepy voice came the most soul satisfying three words I've ever heard. 

"Luv ooo, mum." 

Unprompted. Unsolicited. His idea.  

Complete with a little sleepy grin.  

Between his incessant torturing of his little brother, pestering of his older brother and continual whining at me, ending with my eventual exasperation, I'd figured he'd pretty much given up on me. His mean mommy. 

Who usually doesn't tuck him in, some lame excuse about "being done" and them needing some daddy time.

 I laid my head down beside him and he protested. "No wanna see your face!" So I sat up and we just gazed.
A mother and her boy. 
Smiling mouths. And smiling eyes.  

The smallest twitches, of two faces etched with the same DNA, communicating simultaneous enjoyment and much needed forgiveness.

 To think I almost missed that to go...what? Check my Facebook? Lame.  

Why do I get so distracted? Why does five minutes seem so darn crucial? 

Why do I let myself miss life?!?

Enough. Tonight, Chelsea, you chose well. 

And you were rewarded.  

With little hands touching yours.  

With little kisses on little cheeks.  

With a little mind thinking a little thought, and saying it with a little smile.  

"Luv oooo mum." 

And my heart soared.