Oh Corbin.

This morning, Corbin asked me if he could play Super Mario Brothers on the Wii before school. I told him that there wasn't going to be time.

Later, I told him to come in the bathroom so I could comb his hair and he said, "Shoot! I wanted to play Mario!"

I told him, again, that there wouldn't be time and he started crying. I told him to go get his boots on and he was crying and saying that he doesn't want to go to school, he just wants to stay home all day.

I came out to help him with his boots, and I told him that we had to have a talk.

I told him that I know how much he loves to play Mario, and I love that about him. And I know that he'd rather stay home and play Mario all day than go to school, and he said, "But I just want to stay home with you all day! I really miss you when I'm at school!"

And he started crying all over again.

I know this has to do with Tim being away.

We did a lot of hugging, and talking, and I told him that Daddy will be home in only a few more days, and then it will be his birthday party, and that on Saturday he could play Mario during the day, too.

I told him that his job is to go to school, and work as hard as he can, so that someday he can make his own dreams come true. I told him that if he gets a good education, and works very hard, that someday when he's a man, he'll get to do anything that he can dream of. That he could be a doctor, or a video game inventor, or a veteranarian, or a playground builder, but that before anything like that can happen, first he has to go to school and work very hard.

He still insisted that he didn't want to go, and that he doesn't make any money when he's at school, and that he just wants to stay home with me. He begged me to stay home "just for one day". I told him that if he stayed home and he wasn't sick, I'd have to make him clean. Because if you don't go to school and get a good education, then you're going to have to learn to clean houses instead. And I told him that I love it that he loves playing Mario, but if it's going to interfere with school, then I'm not going to be able to let him play it anymore.

We worked out a deal that I will play Mario with him as soon as he gets home. I made sure to ask him if everyone at school is nice to him. He says that everyone is nice to him, and that he knows he could tell me if they weren't.

He said, again, how much he misses me when he's at school, and asked me if I have a phone that I could give him, so that he could call me from school when he misses me. I told him that I don't have, but they wouldn't let him have it at school anyway.

There was, again, a lot more hugging, and some more crying, but eventually he was ready to go to school. I feel so bad that he feels so bad. He does so great in school. His report card was outstanding. I'm not sure what else I can do for him, if anything....