Shatter

I am honestly surprised that this happened today, and not much earlier. Today, the floor lamp that we have had since getting married, was shattered. Culprits: two little boys, one of which was quite scared and the other one could care less (guess which ones!). The littlest one was sleeping snugly in his crib, thank goodness.

James decided to have art time today (which went really well and we had such a great time!). I attempted snowflakes (FAIL), Gavin colored beautifully on any piece of paper within his reach, and James cut cut cut paper and used markers. Once they were all done, I had the wonderful job of cleaning up all our messes. I was almost done, and was taking almost the last of the paper to the recycling bin (so seriously, like two seconds in the kitchen), when I hear a loud SHATTER. I thought to myself, "What in the world could have made that noise?? How did they get to a picture frame??" I take the two steps out of the kitchen to look into our great room, and behold this scene: James on his Buzz car, Gavin standing next to him, both near where the lamp should have been, and the lamp on the ground, the top shattered into lots of lovely glass pieces. I wasn't happy. I put the boys far away from the glass and started to pick up all the glass. I look over and James is just tense and looks like he is going to burst into tears. I went over to him, and asked him if he was ok. He looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I'm scared!" and just started crying. I felt so bad- a large object shatters right next to him and his mommy gets upset at him for it happening. Poor guy. I held him close, telling him that it was totally ok. It was an accident and I would take care of it. I wasn't mad at all. Calmed him down so much. I then let them watch a Tinkerbell movie on the computer, which they thought was such a cool treat. I got the great job of making sure every last shard of glass was gone. Joy.

I have been trying a lot lately to be softer with my children. I find myself getting too caught up in the non-perfect behavior and the craze of errands and whatever else will cause me to get too anxious and be too stern with my kids. Today, even though I lost my cool for a little bit, I was really happy with how awesome it turned out in the end. I really felt like it was a big milestone for James and I understanding one another and both of us listening. He is still apologizing for it happening, but then quickly adding on, "But we'll buy a fixed one!". Yeah, let's avoid the brand-new broken ones, little buddy. I love learning lessons from my kids and seeing the efforts of mothering paying off.