Yes Day

Ever heard of parents being fed up with always saying no to their kids and in response declaring it a 'Yes Day'? This is where they consciously say yes to everything they would normally say no to. Kinda like Jim Carrey in that movie, Yes Man. Well, it looks like today we are going to have a Yes Day.

Here is the reason: About a month ago Zach found out his step-father had Yankees tickets for a game today. There are four and Zach will be going with his mom, brother and step-father. If you can count you'll realize that that leaves no ticket for Jacob. Well Jacob got to go to Yankee Stadium (the old one) last year and that sort of set a precedent in his mind that Yankee Stadium is a thing to do. So when Zach found out he'd be going, and without his little boy (with whom the Yankees have become the stuff of major father-son bonding), we didn't know what to do.

I told Zach we couldn't tell Jacob, that he'd be crushed. And when Zach mentioned the camera, I thought that there was no way we could get away without telling Jacob because he'd see the pictures. Also though, we've never lied to Jacob. I don't want to start now.

Well today's the day and as Zach said a really long goodbye to Jacob this morning, the guilt was building. I'm good at lying and making the day fun in a pinch, but all I could of was that I didn't want to lie to him. I sort of brought it up in a casual way, as in a hypothetical situation. And Jacob was so good about it. "What? Tell me, Mommy." So I told him.

He tried so hard not to cry, but his face belied him. It slowly contorted, the forehead and bottom lip getting closer to one another. I told him it was ok to be sad and to cry, that we could talk about how he was feeling, and that we'd do plenty of fun things to make up for it. Jacob is taking full advantage of my guilt, and suddenly it's turned into a 'Yes Day'.

On one hand I realize there are many of kids in the world who don't even have the luxury of a roof over their heads, so we may seem spoiled, but I think it's more than that. I think it's about the father-son bonding thing. I think Jacob feels left out that Daddy is going anywhere, period, without him. They have such a strong bond that I'm actually surprised Zach is even going. I would think that he'd be like, "Oh I simply can't go if Jacob can't." I know that is completely naive though, coming from someone who is not a Yankees fan. Jacob had a really awesome first-time MLB experience (fourth row behind the dugout, a player handed him a ball, almost caught a foul) which will be hard to top in his lifetime. I think he is sort of spoiled in that respect. The same way we're runined for road-trips now that we've had the experience of three weeks in a free 31ft. RV (we're very lucky people that we've had some great opportunities land in our lap like that and I am forever thankful).

So for today Jacob has already had hot chocolate for breakfast, we're going to the diner for lunch (where he plans to have chocolate milk and pancakes), we'll have ice cream (probably chocolate), we'll go see Marisa....and who knows what else.