Empathetic One

Without a shadow of a doubt, Luke is blessed with the gift of empathy.  Even as a nine month old baby, he was distressed by another baby crying.  A worried look spread on his face, he crawled over and put his chubby hand on the baby's arm as if to say, "Oh no, what's wrong?  It's going to be okay, I'm here for you."

He has a sixth sense when we are stressed about something.  He is already a good boy, but he becomes super child when he feels something is off with the people around him.  If I'm having a rather impatient day, I hear, "Mommy, I'll get that for you." or "Can I help you with that?"  Yes, I know, he's a gentleman in little boy's clothing.

During his soccer season this year, he had a hard time wrapping his brain around why anybody would be throwing elbows.  Don't get me wrong, that didn't stop him from being a goal-scoring-maniac by the last few games.  Early on though, we had to sit him down and explicitly tell him that it's just what other soccer players do, it's nothing against him.

Yesterday, Luke hit a ten on the empathy meter.  Jackie was feverish, tired and extremely grumpy.  All day long, I heard, "Jackie, you can play with my car," "Here you go, do you want this blanket?"  "Do you want me to build this for you?"  He also had the sense that I was a little limited while carrying a sickie around the house.  Normally, he asks me if we can play Memory about 100 times a day.  He didn't ask me to play AT ALL yesterday.  At one point, his Memory addiction got the best of him, but he didn't say anything to me.  He just dumped the cards out and started playing by himself!

So be forewarned.  If you come over to our house, he KNOWS what's going on in your heart.  I don't know how, but he just knows.