Your Eyes Have Seen Me.
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Matt
Today I spent the day with my three-year-old son Matt. It was an amazing day in several respects, but I'll save most of them for later.

We ran errands in the morning, rode with Daddy to the courthouse and actually peeked through the porthole into the courtroom while he was arguing and saw the back of his head! He didn't know we were out there! And then we had lunch with Daddy and walked around the mall. We pushed Matt in a firetruck stroller. And we shopped a little. We stopped at Yankee Candle, and Eddie Bauer, and the Disney Store. You know, G-rated destinations.

Matt and I dropped Daddy off at the office and came back home. And later, while Matt was wrapped up in Party Time with Max and Ruby, I got a naughty idea. It was, after all, late Friday afternoon and I had nowhere to drive, no business to tackle.

So I sneaked into the garage and burned a tiny bit of plant material -- half a thimble, tops. Just as some other mom might sneak some champagne into her orange juice, or open a cooler instead of a Diet Coke, you know. Nothing imprudent.

But afterward, Matt ran up to me as I sat on the floor, to hug me I thought. Instead he abruptly drew back, grinned and scampered off. He mentioned something about it's like steaks -- meaning he smelled something like when Daddy runs the barbecue. A half-hour after that, playing with Woody and Bullseye, he told me Bullseye needs eye drops. His eyes are red.

So we went upstairs. I had a little travel Visine in a duffel, so I gave him that for Bullseye and Woody. And I put in eye drops from the big Mommy-sized bottle.

And I thought Three years old and this kid has eagle eyes and can report with impressive accuracy on what he observes. Nothing less than total honesty is going to work with this one.

Matt has a way of bringing out the best in me. If I'm going to look at myself through his eyes, I can see I'm going to have to keep my eye on the ball -- I can see that he sees clearly.

Thanks for a great day, kiddo. I owe you one.