"Thank you Mama"

This has been a crazy week. We've had weather and school cancellations on top of trying to find our groove after the holiday and Christmas craziness.

On Thursday, I dropped Amelia off at preschool (her school was open) and went with William (his school was not open) and Gemma in search of a science project display board. The requirements for a display board are very specific* and we went to 2 stores before I finally gave up (and went with PlanB**) This boiled down to me trying to completed measurement conversions in the aisle without scrap paper while keeping Gemma from falling out of the cart and keeping William from climbing the shelves. This was a parenting task rated 8.5 on the difficulty scale. I was frustrated and crabby because William's behavior was not great and the minute I stepped more than 8 inches away from the cart Gemma would either scream, "MAMA MAMA MAMA MAMA!" or attempt to fall head first out of the cart. I was frazzled. It was not my finest parenting moment.

When Gemma pointed at some brightly colored plastic on the shelf, I happily handed it to her with the hopes of 5 seconds of quiet in order to collect my thoughts. I would have to figure out how to get the 59 cent can of playdoh from her later.

which is when she said in her sweet voice "Dank du Mama"

This was so unexpected, I just stood there in shock.

This right here is parenting for me. You are at the end of your rope and feel like you have been pushed as far as you can go when a tiny miracle happens that bowls you over.

That moment erased everything negative and brought me back to the moment.

This moment where:
My daughter spoke her first 3 word sentence (to me!)
One of my children was thankful for something I had given them.
when I finally said, "What?" She replied "Dank du Mama" again and I thought my heart would break open right there from the downright cuteness.

Needless to say, I figured out enough to know that the board wasn't going to work and we left. We left after I paid for the Playdoh. I wasn't going to take it away from her now!


*the requirements are all given in metric, which is understandable because the scientific community operates on the metric system. However, the rest of the US is happily using the English system of measurement. All project boards are labeled in English units (inches, etc) and the requirements are all in metric (centimeters, etc). Students who submit a project that does not meet the size criteria will not be allowed to participate in the science fair. So, while I don't care to make more of a 1st grade science project than it really is, I am not investing time and energy into helping him figure this out and then not be allowed to participate.

**PlanB is to call the school and find out if they still have display boards left in their school supply store. They did. Problem solved. Mostly.

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