Some days....

I was going to blog about something else entirely, something thought provoking even.  I had most of it typed out and took a break to help Natalie help me make lunch.  And then I heard it.  My youngest son calling my name.  I asked him what he needed because I was helping Natalie make lunch.  He replied, "I want you to see my house!"  He was very enthusiastic and excited even.  So I told him I would be there in one second.  I rounded the corner and saw something that just about sent me into a panic....it was my sweet boy with a red violet crayon in his hand.  When he saw me he said, "look at my house mommy it's pretty now!"  I thought about putting him in a box and sending him to his grandma, I thought about hanging him upside down by his toenails (just an expression), but all that came out was Ethan, (said not too calmly) what is this?!"  He replied, "it's my house mommy."  I said, "Ethan your picture is so pretty, but we don't color on walls.  (getting louder here) We don't color on anything but PAPER!"  Ok that last word was probably too loud.  I realized I was losing it and told him he needed to go to his room for a few minutes while I tried to figure out how to get hot pink/purple color off of our newly painted, flat paint based walls.  I sat for a second, freaking out and then I realized I had some shout that I use to get stains out of our clothes.  I ran and grabbed it.  Sprayed on just a little and started scrubbing with my Pampered Chef cleaning brush.  It came off in one spot but required a lot of elbow grease and I was losing the craptastic flat paint on the walls.  When I realized I could probably get MOST of it off (by removing the paint)  I call Ethan in, talked to him calmly and rationally and told him that because he decided to color on the wall he had to help scrub it off.  He did.  I started calming down more.  I realized that I might have over-reacted just a bit by panicking and yelling at my sweet little 3 year old, (not my finer parenting moment) but in all fairness it would have been much worse had his father been the one to find it.  While we were cleaning he said, "mommy I made the house so pretty."  He was trying to help me in his child-like way and I got angry with him.  His big blue eyes melted my angry heart.  I knew he wasn't trying to be destructive, truth be told, he was trying to show me he loved me. We talked about what he COULD do to help me make the house pretty and that he needed to ask me before making the house pretty. And when it's all said and done, and truth be told when I'm looking at that little guy I see this big one....

 Some days....