Yes, we live in South East FL and yes the title of this post has the word "snow" in it. Now before you start scratching you head and thinking I've lost my mind remember that I have a 2 year old child who loves to create messes for me to clean up.
Today was going along like any other day. Get up, go to a meeting, come home, eat lunch, nap time, etc. Well, at 4 pm the day took a drastic change for the messier! Our doorbell rang and low and behold the Fedex man was standing there with a ginormous box which contained one new "big boy" bed for Bubba (who has been sleeping in a pack n play for his first 9 months). Oh the joy our house felt when a big box was pushed through the door. Jeffrey began to jump and clap and Bubba followed suit. Before we knew it the box had been opened and the Styrofoam was being tossed around while I removed the pieces one at a time.
I quickly assessed the situation and realized that even though the mattress had not yet been delivered the best option for us would be to assemble the bed to merely get it out of our way and take less of a chance damaging something or someone. After removing all the trash and boards from the box, Jeffrey and I began to carry the pieces of Bubba's new bed to his room. Once everything was placed in the corner I sat down and began the assembly process. I had never assembled a piece of furniture with the help of two children and a dog before but I guess there is a first time for everything right? Eventually (about an hour later) we had the bed put together and we did our happy dance with clapping and cheering for Bubba as he had taken a major step towards "big boyhood".
One by one we began to leave the room and move onto the next project of cleaning up and getting ready for dinner. I really didn't think too much about what the kids were doing while I made food for them however I did notice that things became mysteriously quiet. I called out for Bubba and he immediately wheeled himself over to me in his walker and then I called out for Jeffrey. At first I thought I heard a "huh?" but then I realized I was hearing giggles. I called his name again and this time there was dead silence. I first checked in his room, no Jeffrey. Next I checked Bubba's room, no Jeffrey. Lastly I went into our art room and before I laid eyes on my precious child I discovered what looked like white snow all over our floor and Molly jumping up catching it in her mouth. I didn't know what to think at first as I couldn't quite grasp what was happening until I locked eyes with him. There stood my little helper surrounded in white "snow" holding a large piece of Styrofoam breaking it off into tiny little pieces and throwing it up in the air.
I didn't know what to say to him. I created several different statements in my head trying to determine which would be the most constructive. Should I be mad? Should I laugh? Should I use this as a "teachable moment?" Then it hit me. Just simply ask him what he is doing. So that is what I did. "Jeffrey, what are you doing?" "may pitty mamma" (make pretty mama). Bless his little heart. He was not doing this out of rebellion nor was he doing it to intentionally make a mess. He thought he was decorating as I had done for several hours the day before. All I could do was hug him and say that it was beautiful. We looked at it for a few seconds and then I pointed out to him that the dog was going to get sick if she ate any of that. He looked worried and said, "keen up" (clean up). So together we went to gather the hose for our vacuum and began the clean up process. It didn't take long to remove the "snow" but the memory will last a lifetime. How precious the mind of a child is when you take time to ask what they are thinking.
Kids can cause some major messes and usually end up creating more work for you but do you ever stop and ask why they are doing it? It is our nature to immediately try to stop the behavior and correct them but sometimes their intent is not what we think it is. If I had yelled at him he would have been crushed because he thought he was making things pretty but by embracing the beauty of his work we were able to clean it up together without damaging any ideas. Aren't you glad that God doesn't yell at us for our messes? Aren't you thankful that He allows us to defend what we are doing and then holds our hand as we clean up together? Again, another lesson I learned from my child. I'm so thankful that God gave me kids so that I could learn and be smarter!
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