"I love you SO much Mom..."

I hear these words fairly often from Forrest. Often they are after I have given him a special treat he has earned, or put on a movie or show for him, or sat down to read a bunch of books with him. But equally as much are those times that make you pause, and then melt. Because it makes you realize that he acknowledges you as a person and understands your likes and dislikes and respects this. Kind of hard to put into words.
Tomorrow I have a big test. I have to take my PA board re-certification exam. It's a 240 question test, I'm given 4 hours, and well, it's kind of a big deal. If I pass it, I won't have to re cert for another 10 years. I had no problem with my initial PA boards 6 years ago. But, there is no arguing that I may as well have been a different person back then. Studying was what I did, in between playing with Alex, and riding my bike. Marriage, two boys, a full time plus job, what's that? I won't go into just how impossible studying with a 4 year old and an almost 2 year old has been, that's a given. I'll just say thank goodness for technology! Podcasts of review topics have been my friends, making my driving time at least more useful to me.
So, tonight, Alex had an errand to run, I've been basically sitting on my butt for two days straight CRAMMING, (no better way to really put it...) all the asinine details of all of medicine into my brain.  For me this is driving me crazy. I like to be useful, see patients, treat them, fix them with surgery if they need it, exercise, ride my bike, cook for my family, provide for my family, to sum it all up, I just like to MOVE. So, no bike time for the last few days was kind of crappy so I decided to put on a little Myth Busters for Forrest and do a little 20 minute circuit. I was in the middle of a major quad burning 90 second wall sit and Forrest, who had been half enraptured in the movie, and half distracted by what I was doing asked what I was doing. I explained, told him it was making me stronger but my legs were burning, and he touched them and offered some ice to "cool them off" :-) I told him it was okay, and then he offered his blankie as when he is burning in the sun his blankie makes him feel better. I again declined and he continued to stare at me and then came the

"I love you SO much Mom..."

Now this could be just a random thing, or it could have been, perhaps, him acknowledging my crazy, albeit small amount of hard work, and maybe an understanding of why I was doing it.

Regardless, it made my night...!

These little people sure are amazing.

Now back to business....