Kindness and Charity in Innocents

Christopher has been requesting to both of us tonight, "Ah-ahna go Wed Wobbin.  Mac Cheese and Sayad?" since we've been home from Day Care/Work....and I mean that very literally.  He repeated his request every few minutes....in the exact same way.  We didn't feel as though we could deny the boy, so we went to Red Robin for dinner.  Those of you who know about the restaurant is that they give free balloons to the kids who come in, Christopher was no exception.  We ate dinner, no problems, and then traveled to the Mall to get Christopher shoes from Stride Rite (the Red Robin here shares the lot with the local mall).  We entered the mall and walked straight away to the Stride Rite store.  Christopher was allowed on this trip to take his balloon with him, which is a very rare exception to our usual rule about toys on trips to stores and whatnot. Upon entering, there was another family, I presume the grandmother and mother of a little boy in a stroller who looked to be about 1 1/2 or so.  They were being assisted by the clerk and we were waiting our turn...entertaining Christopher and keeping him at bay...not allowing him to escape the confines of the store itself, but also veer him away from behind the checkout counter (for anyone who knows Christopher of late, they can imagine how difficult this task is, but Christopher did pretty well following directions and not pushing limits tonight).  Somehow during all of this, the little boy in the stroller got hold of Christopher's balloon.  No one's sure when it happened, at least not from my family, but it did.  Not an issue for us really, so long as it wasn't an issue for Christopher....then it would have to be dealt with.  The problem is that one never knows how that situation is going to unfold as it depends a lot on unknown elements such as the mood of the child, how tired the child is at that moment, and what state of the "mine" phase the child is in just to name a few.  Christopher notices his balloon suspended in the air, and soon after, noticed that the little boy was holding the balloon.  Christopher looks up at me, points to the balloon and yells, "BAYOON, DADDY! DASS MINE BAYOON!"  I responded as gently as possible, "Christopher, he really likes the balloon. Maybe you should let him have the balloon."  After saying this, I held my breath for what seemed like hours...knowing that there would soon be variances of "no's" and "dass mine bayoon's" and the like.  But to my surprise, Christopher replied to me," Okay, Daddy."  He walked over to the boy and said, "Hi, baby.  Here. You can have mine bayoon, baby."  He then walked back to Colleen and I with a big smile on his face...of course resulting in mounds upon mounds of positive reinforcement including earning an extra organic vanilla milk from Starbucks (which is his favorite).  It was a very proud moment for both of us...and, moreover, reminded us of the impact of kindness and charity that can be taught and encouraged in our children...it was really an amazing event to watch unfold and I honestly I'm not sure I've ever been as happy with Christopher as I was tonight.