That darn snowflake!

Today I realized 2 things. The first is that your children pick up some of your habits you don't even realize you are displaying to them. The second is that I really need to work on my joy goal. I have always let people or situations steal my joy and once it is gone, I tend to let the rest of the day or week go downhill. I found out today that Colton is just like me.

I walked to school to pick him up and usually he runs by me, throws his backpack at me and runs to the park to play with his friends for 5 more minutes before we head home. Today though he came out dragging his feet and when I asked him about the park he said no with his head hanging down. As we started to walk he told me about his day. I guess they made snowflakes in class and however he folded and cut his, it didn't turn out. Right away his teacher helped him to make it right, but as he said, "I am the only kid in 2nd grade who can't cut a dumb snowflake!" I told him it was not a big deal, not to let it ruin his day and that we could practice at home if he wanted. He then replied, "And it's not just that, on morning recess I slipped on the bridge on the playground that was covered in frost and then at lunch recess ____ got mad at me because I went to play basketball with someone else and..." And at that very moment he went to take a drink out of his water bottle and it spilled all down his shirt. He made this loud growl sound and then stomped his foot and said, "I am THIS angry!" He had his fingers spread as wide as they could be. Then he squeezed them together and said, "I am only this happy." I stopped in my tracks, gave him a big hug, told him I loved him and asked him what we could do to change that. He replied, "Well, now I am only this angry," widening his fingers only three-fourths of the way, "and a little more happy. Your I love you helped a little."

When he said that I had to laugh to myself because I have had those days. Those days where you start out by spilling something and then drop something and then trip and so on. What I don't want to happen though is for my 7 year old to let joy slip through his fingers because he feels so defeated by little moments that won't even matter by the end of the day. When he got home we had 15 minutes to ourselves before Dawson came home. We hugged and cuddled and laughed at funny stories and by time Dawson came home, I think he was much better. Now I am here typing and I can hear them laughing and playing together in the other room. It's amazing to me how much our kids learn from us, even when we think there is nothing "watchable." I hope I remember this day and handle myself better the next time one of "those" days sneaks up on me. I want to be purposeful about hanging on to my joy.