on going from :( to :D in less than five minutes

First, the part that made me feel sad and pretty naive and stupid: I was late for a lunch meeting and when I came down into the subway, I was accosted by a woman who told me she needed money (about 15 euros) for a train ticket home. She was good, I'll give her that; I believed her. I didn't have any Swedish money on me, but I gave her a 10-euro note I found in my wallet, and then I realized she was lying. And before I could react, she was gone. I felt really dumb, and I also felt sad.

But then, oh. I got on the train and sat down next to a man, and across from us (on the other set of four seats) sat a little boy of about 4. He was pointedly not looking over, and it took me a second to realize that the man next to me was his dad. I looked at him and grinned, saying something about stubborn kids, huh (it was pretty clear he'd decided to sit over there because he WANTED to and his dad could just deal), and the dad nodded, laughing. I looked back over at the kid and made a funny face at him, he promptly lost his grumpyface, grinned and made a funny face right back, and that was our cue to make funny faces at each other for about four stations.

And then they were going to get off, and I smiled at the dad and waved at the kid, and then he marched right up to me and reached up for a hug and then kissed me on the cheek with this awesome smile on his face, and oh, you guys, I was grinning for ten minutes straight after that. First of all, what a great dad--that was one happy kid, albeit with quite the independent streak (which it seemed like his dad was completely okay with, letting him sit in the seat he wanted to sit in). Second--MAN, I can't even. How great are kids sometimes, you guys. How great. ♥