Marathon Monday

A day that no one will in the region will soon forget started out so nicely.  Having the day off from work, the boys and I met Talia, Noa, and their mom Mali at the playground.  The boys had lots of fun playing, and we ended the outing with a picnic lunch.  Exhausted, we went home for naps.

I was just about ready to wake the boys up when I saw the breaking news, two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Having run a half marathon in the fall, and this struck even closer to home.  I was glued to the television and computer for the next half an hour, before I tore myself away to get the boys up.

We went outside to play, just like we would on any other spring day.  We came in and had dinner and took baths, just like on any other night.  Dave put the news on while I was bathing the kids, and even though Mudgie went downstairs after bath while I put Aaron to bed, he seemed oblivious to what was on the tv, instead having fun playing on the iPad. It wasn't until I told him it was time for him to go to bed that he seemed to even notice the tv was on.  He saw the replay of the explosion, the smoke, the people running, and asked me, "What happened, Mommy?"

Crap.  How do can you explain an act of terror to someone so innocent that, to him, pushing, hitting, and name calling are the worst offensives he can think of?  And why should I have to?  I don't want to live in a world where one person or group of people think it's ok, or justified, or heroic to take the lives of another human being.  But alas, that is the world we live in, and while I don't think I need to share all of its grotesqueness with a 4-year-old, I certainly can't hide it all from him either.

So I simply said to him, "A very not nice person did a very not nice thing."  And Mudgie said, "Oh," before proceeding to go upstairs for his normal bedtime routine.