*Update: I found Matthew’s Blankie!!!! It was in Samuel’s dirty laundry basket!!!! Yay!!!!
This morning, Samuel was up at 6:45 – stealing my last precious few moments of alone time. On top of that, he woke up in a lousy mood and very needy. I was irritated.
When the other boys got up, things went from bad to worse. Now Samuel was not just irritating me – he was going from person to person, spreading ill-will.
When I stepped outside the door to my bedroom and almost tripped over the pillows from our bed Samuel had dragged there, I snapped. I said, in a not so kind tone of voice, “SAAAAAMUUUUEEEEEL!!!! GET IN HERE AND PICK UP THESE PILLOWS!!!!”.
As I stepped over the pillows and stomped toward the kitchen, I heard Matthew’s little pixy voice saying to me “Mommy, I think you may be getting a little angry.” He wasn’t accusing me or being unkind – just pointing out what was obvious to everyone in the room but me.
I stopped and crouched down so that I could look into his eyes. “I think you’re right, Matthew. What should I do?”. “You need to stop and breathe,” he replied. “Will you help me?” I asked. So together we practiced taking deep breathes – just the way I had coached him so many times before.
And you know what? It worked!
