Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Comfort and Compassion Kid Style

We were at Costco AGAIN yesterday. I practically live there, and why shouldn't I? That place has it all. I was going through the aisles with 5 of the kids, telling them MANY O' TIME not to walk right in front of the cart "I can't see you", "I might not be paying close enough attention to you to stop in time...I am on a mission", "You're going to get smashed" etc. I think these are all very convincing reasons to steer clear of the front of the cart, but that's me. My kids like to walk on the wild side, they laugh at danger. Today, though, I think they might have learned a little something about velocity and getting in its way.
Here's the scene: We were walking with our ginormous cart back out to the car. It is starting to rain a little so I am walking a little faster than I would on, say, a sunny day. The parking lot is sloping gradually towards a drain. All of these factors contributed to what happened next, but none were as much to blame as Mr. Reese and his chosen path. It wasn't a gradual veer that led him to that treacherous place, but a sudden 90 degree left turn right in front of the cart. AND....he's down, SCREAMING as only Reese can. I pull the giant pack of toilet paper off of him and help him up. "Are you okay?" But, being the mean mother that I am, that was about as far as the compassion went. " Do you see why you shouldn't walk in front of the cart?!?!" and all of the reasons mentioned above were restated, along with the whole speed+intersecting vectors= no good quickie physics lesson. We got everyone and everything into the car and headed home, Reese still crying in the backseat.
Sometimes people give me a hard time for having so many kids. I loved growing up in a big family and am happy to raise my own kids in a not quite as big a family for many reasons, one of them being that there is always someone there to help you feel better. On this day, a little extra compassion was what was needed, and it came in the form of Maya.

Reese: "Whaaaaaaaaaaa!
Maya: "Weese, why don'tt you justt stop thinking aboutt yo owie, and then itt won'tt hutt anymo." (Her t's are always very crisp and enunciated.)
Reese: "WHAAAA! I can't stop thinking about it, it hurts so bad!"
Maya: "Well, why don'tt you think aboutt Gwamma wewing yo undowew and then you won'tt think aboutt yo toe anymo."

What a sweetheart.