Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A Few Things...

So here's me: The glass is half full (it's a little more than half full, if you look at it from a different angle!)

And here's Carly lately: That glass stinks. Is it even MADE out of glass? It's probably plastic, leaching BPAs everywhere and who put it there in the first place? Plus there's no ice in it and I don't like tap water to begin with. This is worthless. What a ridicleeous question. *stomps off*

I know exactly where she gets this Debbie Downer tendency and I have every intention of working around it. Being the nerd that I am, I checked out a bunch of books from the library on helping kids work through nervousness and negativity - if for nothing else than to give me some words to say to her when she comes to me talking (complaining, grousing, griping, whining, grumping) about the fact that summer means more bo-bo's due to more running.

Literally. She's not thinking (like me) about watermelon, the beach, relaxed dinners on the porch, family time, the beach, playing in the water hose, popsicles, the beach, bubbles, sunshine, camping, outdoor movie nights or any of that stuff. Just the probable increase in knee abrasions.

Obviously, my initial thought of "SERIOUSLY, kid???" would have not be so helpful in this situation, so I simply said that sand is soft and we changed the subject.

I'm hopeful this stack of books (such a nerd!) will give us some tools to work with! I cannot live in negative land and I know from past experience that there IS a little sunshine girl hiding inside all those storm clouds. I just have to help her get back out without damaging...darn the metaphor fell apart. Anyway, you know what I mean, right?

While I'm figuring it out, I've been working really hard to cut out anything that could be construed as complaining or fault-finding coming out of my mouth, and it's providing me with a great source of amusement. I spent many, many hours ironing last night (because I haven't done it in a WHILE) and this morning, Carly was like "oh no, Mom! You had so much work to do last night!" and I just sort of ignored that part because hello it was totally true and said instead "look at all the beautiful clothes we have and how pretty they are all ironed and neat! We are so lucky to have THIS much stuff" which segued beautifully (if I do say so myself) into a discussion about taking care of our things, being grateful for what we have, and how hard Daddy works (and Mommy works now) to make sure we have the things we need and want.

I'm sort of a genius, what can I say?
...don't ask me about how loading the car went this morning, though, okay? Let's quit while I'm ahead. =)

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