A Tale of Triumph and Tragedy

I forgot to post this, but better late than never, right?

As you know, we splurged at the beginning of the school year and bought BYU football tickets. We took the boys to all the home games, except two. One we got a sitter for, and just James and I went (sheer joy!) and the other, Matthew had a practice for the Primary Program, so James took his brother and one of his nephews.
It was hard work to bring the boys, and I didn't get to see much of the games (boo!) but, I'm glad that we did it. Matthew and Ethan are now true-blue-dyed-in-the-wool Cougar fans. They both know all the words to the fight song, and sing it on a regular basis...pretty cute, if I do say so myself!
Well, for the boys, seeing the team run out onto the field at the beginning of each game and watching for Cosmo were the highlights of their football watching experience...especially watching for Cosmo. Matthew told me at the first game that he would really LOVE to meet Cosmo..."set that up for me, will ya mom?" Right. But, lo and behold, on the last home game that we attended, I spied Cosmo doing a meet and greet with the fans just a few rows behind us. I grabbed Matthew, RAN up the stairs, and reached the landing where Cosmo was, just in time to see him turn around and start running further up the stairs. But I was not about to be thwarted! I set Matthew down, and lunged for him, grabbed his furry arm, and gave it a good tug. He turned around and gave me a puzzled look (now I know he wears a mask, and couldn't really give me a puzzled look, but trust me, it was there) and so I pointed down at Matthew and said "This little guy really wants to meet you. " Cosmo then stooped down and shook his hand and they started conversing (now I know Cosmo doesn't really talk, but trust me, they were communicating). I felt pretty darn proud of myself. I was the best mom in the world. I, I arranged a meeting with Cosmo for Matthew. Right at the height if my triumph, as I was basking in the wonderfulness that I was, something caught my attention. I turned around, and what I saw wrenched the heart right out of my chest: there was little Ethan trying with all his might to climb the massive stadium stairs, shouting "Mom, wait for me! Don't forget me!" as he went. I glanced at Matthew who was still conversing with Cosmo and surveyed the crowd of other anxious parents waiting for their turn, and swiftly ran back down the stairs, scooped up Ethan, ran up the stairs AGAIN, and got there to see Cosmo disappear into the crowd. I felt terrible. I don't know what I felt worse about: that Ethan didn't get to meet Cosmo, or that I didn't even think to bring him in the first place. And, just to rub a little salt in the wound, Matthew said "Hey mom, next time bring your camera, you didn't even get a picture." I was crying, but trying to hide it, as I brought them both back to our seats, I cried when I told James what happened, I cried when I told my mom about it later, and I'm tearing up as I think about it now. "Don't worry," Matthew told Ethan, "you'll get to meet him when we go to the basketball games." Right.