Sometimes the small teaching moments with our kids can become “ah-ha” moments of our own. I stumbled upon one of these today. Cole was having a typical three year old tantrum before naptime. When I finally got him into his bed he wanted to talk about all the things that made him sad. He’d had plenty of time to feel what he felt and now I wanted to help him move on from it.
“Cole, instead of talking about the things that make you sad, let’s talk about the things that make you happy.”
As he started to share his happy list with me (his stuffed animal Piggy…ice pops…Caillou…etc.) a light bulb went off in my head.
I’ve always been pretty good at shining a happy face out to the world, but behind closed doors I’m not always all that happy. The truth is I’ve been pretty overwhelmed since finding out we are having twins. Most people have their fabulous times and challenging times and this is just one of those challenging times! I need to take the advice that I gave to my three year old. Instead of focusing on the things that make me sad and overwhelmed I need to make more of an effort to remind myself of the things that make me happy. Although my list definitely doesn’t include Caillou, I certainly have a lot to be thankful for and long line of things that make me happy, starting with these two handsome guys!
Grateful for these teaching moments. I sure do learn a lot…and hope he does too 🙂