content with scraps

Today, while at my parents' house, the boys were begging Sam to go downstairs to the basement with them. My parents recently purchased a new townhouse with a really nice finished basement. It is a great place for the boys to play and their favorite thing is to have Daddy throw pillows at them while they run around in circles. It gets them moving and tires them out, so I'm all for it.
Sam decided that the boys needed to give me a kiss and a hug before he would go downstairs with them. Yes, we sometimes stoop to bribing our kids for hugs and kisses. Tru ran right over and gave me a huge hug and nice, wet, sloppy kiss. Jem, however, decided that playing in the basement with Dad wasn't worth hugging and kissing Mommy. So while Sam took Tru downstairs, Jem stood by the basement door and cried. We asked him what was wrong and his response was, "Mommy only gets one kiss. I can't kiss and hug her."
As a mom, it is sometimes hard not to take things personally. Like when my kid would rather cry than give me a hug. That definitely feels personal. But I also have to remember that he is learning how to be his own person. He is trying to figure out where the boundaries are and he doesn't always do a good job of choosing his battles. Plus, I am the easiest target for his anger and frustration. He knows (I hope) that I will always love him and that I will always be there for him.
For today, I just let it go and decided instead to be thankful that Truett wanted to hug and kiss me. It can be either feast or famine and I take whatever scraps I can get during the famine periods.