This one was not quite so bad, but oh man. Hah, yea.
So a couple mornings ago I was really excited because we'd made a green smoothie for breakfast. You might be wondering why this is exciting, and that's because I have to admit, our smoothies have been fewer and farther between right now as we are in a budget crunch while hubbs finishes up his PhD and we are on a lower income. Smoothies = incredible, nutrient, power packed breakfasts, but also = more $$$ than oatmeal. :)
So there I said it. Not too many green smoothies in our house for the time being.
Anyways, so this was a special occasion, and I told Sonny first thing when I got him up out of bed, cause I knew he'd be excited. And sure enough he was. His face lit up and he started squealing "Smooosh! Smoooosh!!" as I got him ready to go downstairs. I went downstairs ahead of him with my hands full, and stopped off in the bathroom really quickly. He was a good minute behind me - or so I thought.
I was in the bathroom when I heard the fridge door open. Not a huge deal - he does that a lot these days - although he is not supposed to. Then I heard this funny, unfamiliar "sploosh" noise. ... Then it dawned on me. I had left his glass and my glass (about 5 cups of smoothie total), sitting on the fridge shelf right out in front - within perfect reach of a little pudgy arm.
I ran out of the bathroom just in time to see Charlie burst out into uncontrollable sobs. Sure enough, green smoothie was splattered all over the fridge, the floor, the dishwasher, the cabinets, Charlie and....are you ready for this? E-O. E-O the little blue elephant was once again a casualty of war? a Charlie made disaster? ....only this time it was green smoothie not vaseline.
Selfishly I looked to see if my smoothie jar was still intact - it was, whew! - then I set about the task of dealing with my son and his spilled smoothie glass. Poor little Charlie-man was crying buckets. I immediately felt so bad for him that he was so upset over his delicious smoothie being all over the floor. My heart went out to him. Surely he was just as upset as I was over the loss of precious, nutrient packed, yummy tasting smoothie that he was looking forward to eating for breakfast.
But as I tried to comfort my son and clean up the mess, it became apparent that the tears were not over the spilled smoothie, but the covered E-O. He must have known that E-O was "dirty" again and that he would end up going away for several days to get cleaned up like he did after The Great Vaseline Incident. He was heart broken and I thought would blow a gasket when I picked up our now-green little elephant and deposited him in the washing machine. It took a great deal convincing that E-O was just going to take a bath in the washing machine bathtub, like Charlie does upstairs, and that everything would be okay. Seriously. I had to play that one up big time.
He finally started to calm down and I put him in his chair for breakfast. He eagerly gulped up the 3 swallows of smoothie that were still in his cup, cast his eyes at my full glass, put on his sweetest little face, and started saying "Mooah, mooah" while signing "more" with little hands and pointing at my glass.
At that point, my heart just about broke. I have had those "okay, now I really feel like a parent" moments, but this time did me in. Serious Mom Moment. I have never felt more like a parent. Here was my son, who had been disobedient (by opening the fridge), spilled his smoothie in his eagerness to drink the beloved drink, and created quite a huge mess for me to clean up while simultaneously trying to console his broken heart - here he was, asking me so politely and sweetly to share my smoothie - mine! that I had so much looked forward to and that I had every right to because I didn't foolishly spill mine.
And what did I do? I took pity on him shared my beloved smoothie with him. I wanted him to have green smoothie as much as he wanted it, even though he had been disobedient and created a great deal of work for me. I showed him mercy, shared my smoothie and we laughed and giggled. After I reminded him one more time of his folly and what he was NOT supposed to do ever again.
I even got some pictures. :)
There was lots of smoothie love that day. :-D And lots of Love.
Oh and for those curious, the green elephant is now back to his original blue hue, hardly any worse for the wear. I tell you, that elephant and music box inside has survived about 5 more laundry washes than I ever expected it to.
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