Oops. Sorry for spamming my own blog last night in my excitement over 5 Minutes for Mom‘s latest photo contest. I didn’t realize they had a rule about just one entry per person, as I have entered multiple photos before and made it to the finals – I just must not have gotten caught!! :D It was hard enough to narrow it down as far as I did, and much harder to just pick one! Lucky for me, Chris helped (My final entry was the finger painting one. Hopefully I picked right!!).
ANYWAY, back to our normal programming:
A week or so ago, I had a HUGE makeup spill on the carpet in our dressing room.
Bronzer (brown) powder.
On cream carpet.
About one foot by two inches in area. That’s a lot of used-to-be-cream-but-now-brown carpet.
Ali was with me, and I was very glad at that point that one of my (many) weaknesses is NOT swearing when I mess up. I said, in my most horrified voice, .
Ali watched me for the next half hour as I laboriously cleaned up my mess (it DID all come up, surprisingly!). She totally understood the tragedy, and stood over me and my mess, repeating in the same horrified voice that I had used, “Oh no!!!”. It was absolutely adorable, and I was so glad that “oh no” was all I had said.
From that point on, she has started saying “Oh no!!” when she sees anything on the floor, or ground, that she thinks doesn’t belong there. It can be at our house, it can be a puddle of water, it can be litter in the parking lot. They all get the same horrified “oh no!!!”.
So needless to say, as cute as it is, I’ve started tuning it out, at least in a “jump to action” sort of way, because I know it doesn’t mean anything except that Ali thinks that something is out of place.
Yesterday, I was getting ready in my dressing room again, and Ali was behind me, and started repeatedly saying “Oh no!!!”. I didn’t turn around, since, as I said, I figured it didn’t mean much. When I finally did glance over in her direction, I saw that she actually HAD made a pretty big mess.
The poor carpet in our dressing room. She had somehow gotten an eyeliner pencil sharpener and taken the top off and had spilled the contents all over the SAME carpet. She was quite distraught over her mistake.
I am a big proponent of not fussing at accidents (assuming that the child had not been previously told to not do or touch the object of said accident), and so I didn’t react, but comforted her and said, “It’s ok!! Sit here while Mommy cleans it up”. She sat so still, which is a VERY rare thing for her, and watched forlornly as I cleaned up her mess.
For the next half hour or so, she was so very loving to me. She said thank you for everything (including me buckling her into her carseat, of all things), and gave me free hugs and kisses and “love you’s”. She was so appreciative of not getting punished for her mistake.
I am trying to take her lesson to heart. God has shown me so much mercy, encouraged me when I’ve made a mess and cleaned it up for me. Being that I was saved at a very young age, I often take salvation for granted. But I shouldn’t. I should be as grateful and overflowing with appreciation and love for my God (as Ali was for me) EVERY MINUTE of my day!
Wow! That was good, Rachel!