Kiwimommy: Cookie-ing Lessons

Last year I decided to start a new tradition with J-bird, called the We-Get-to-Stay-Home-and-Make-COOKIES-Together-While-Dad-and-Kit-Are-at-the-Priesthood-Broadcast. Since it's October conference, this would make it the semi-annual We-Get-to-Stay-Home-and-Make-COOKIES-Together-While-Dad-and-Kit-Are-at-the-Priesthood-Broadcast edition. It is interesting for me to make particular notice of the growth J-bird experiences between those six months. While it isn't unusual for us to bake a treat together, I don't always give her as many liberties with her independence as I do during WGtSHaMCTWDaKAatPB.

In my eternal quest for self-betterment (notice I didn't write "perfection"...much too daunting), I have especially been working on PATIENCE, recently. This is a trait to which I often have to return. I don't always get it right. In fact, I regularly get it wrong. ALL RIGHT - I'm impatient!! But I'm working on it. :-) Tonight, J-bird taught be a wonderful lesson, to which I refer as a "cookie-ing lesson".

Tonight I let J-bird break the eggs and add them to the mix. All by herself. While it may have been a bit ambitious of me to give the task to a two-year old, I felt she was up to it. And I felt that I was up to it - meaning I could keep my cool if it all went wrong.

Well, it all went wrong.

I did pretty well with my patience. I felt myself getting frustrated and wanting to scold her for spilling the egg all over the counter, and off the counter and down the drawer, and *into* the drawer, and all over the utensils, and down the cupboard, and *into* the cupboard, and all over the baseboard, and on to the floor. But I didn't. Instead, when she asked me over and over, "What are you doing, Mom?" as I made many attempts to clean up the mess properly, I just answered with a description of what I was doing.

"What are you doing, Mom?"
"Mommy is cleaning up the egg on the counter."
"What are you doing, Mom?"
"Mommy is getting another towel."
"What are you doing, Mom?"
"I am washing out the rag to clean the floor."
"What are you doing, Mom?"
"Mommy is wiping up the sticky stuff so it isn't sticky any more."

Granted, I did have a couple of tensely-voiced explanations...but all in all, I thought I handled it fairly well. It was when J-bird was asking yet again, "What are you doing, Mom?" - that I had my little light bulb moment. Not once did she ask me to hurry up. Not once did she complain or whine that she wanted to continue on with the cookie making. Not once did she sound impatient with me. Instead, she just observed my actions without judgment and waited patiently while I went about what I felt I needed to do.

Wow. I was very humbled by her example, and it occurred to me that if a two-year old can be patient, why not I? Thank you, J-bird for the sweetest lesson of the season. xo