Empathy

My son is not a sociopath! He proved it to me Wednesday night. I was exhausted and anxious about a presentation I was giving the next morning. Ben was at band practice until late into the night and all I wanted to do was get Dexter to sleep and crawl into bed myself. Sure enough, it was one of those rare nights when Dexy couldn't sleep. From 8:15 - 10:30pm I was running between my bed and his room to comfort him. At one point, I was holding him in his rocking chair and he was inconsolable - tossing his paci clear across the room, screaming and crying, flailing his arms, kicking his legs, the whole enchilada. I couldn't keep it together any longer and just started crying - tears streaming down my face, chest heaving, whimpers and sobs, the whole enchilada. Then I realized that Dexter wasn't crying anymore. I looked down at him in my arms and he was completely still just looking at me with a slightly confused and concerned look on his face. Believe me, this was not the first time I had cried while trying to comfort him. But it was the first time he responded to my emotional state. Eventually he got to sleep. Not long after that My Bologna started puking all over the living room floor and I was out of bed again cleaning the carpet. It was not my night.