On Tuesday I noticed a flower in our herb garden. I had noticed it before but assumed it was a weed. Honestly, this is how bad we are at weeding: I noticed it a looong time ago and never actually weeded it until I finally realized yesterday that it is not a weed…it’s a daisy!! Daisies are Mary’s favorite flower. I was so delighted that a daisy had pushed its way up through the herbs and started BLOOMING right in time for Mary’s birthday!
After school, the girls had been perfect about practicing and homework, so when Mary finished all of that I beckoned her outside and showed her the birthday daisy that had grown just for her.
Of course, her little heart almost exploded at the thought of a flower growing just for her. She immediately grabbed a watering can to water it, and Ammon went outside to join her. Unfortunately, his attention was drawn to the daisy and before anyone knew what was happening…he picked it.
Mary was a sobbing, heartbroken mess when she came inside and told me that Ammon had picked her flower. Just the other day Abe told me that I am noticeably easier on Ammon than the girls, and so I took one look at sobbing Mary and one look at Ammon and, against the voice in my head that told me not to, I pulled Ammon over and spanked him–not hard, of course, but still. I did spank him.
Well, I happened to be holding Clarissa at the time, so as soon as Ammon started crying, Clarissa looked at him and started wailing too. So now instead of one crying child there were three children crying at the top of their lungs. Lydia said she couldn’t possibly keep doing her homework with the noise so I crawled under the piano to retrieve Ammon, who had run there to hide from me, all the while sobbing and wailing as hard as he could.
I pulled him out from under the piano and carried him to his room. I told him that when he was done crying he could come out. I KNOW this is terrible parenting, but in the situation it was sadly the best solution I could think of.
So I went back down and comforted Mary. We put her flower in a vase. Thank goodness there was another flower, a “buddy” as Mary called it, growing right next to the blooming one. (I am praying that buddy blooms on Mary’s birthday.) We tended to the picked flower and I gave Mary extra water in her watering can so she could go water the buddy.
It was so chaotic I literally don’t know how Clarissa calmed down. She must have calmed down though because when Abe came home the only child that needed help was Ammon. Abe went to him, calmed him down, and strapped him into his car seat so we could all go get Mary’s birthday piñata. The minute I came to the car, Ammon took one look at me and burst into tears. I felt soooooooooo bad.
Mary did a great job picking the most cheerful piñata in the store–a very colorful seahorse. She carried him proudly around for the rest of the evening.
When I tucked Ammon in at night my eyes filled with tears and I told him I was sorry over and over. “It’s okay, Mommy.” He said. I told him I was sorry I spanked him. “Don’t spank me,” he replied, solemnly. I almost cried and said sorry again. He smiled and said, “Mommy, you sad? It’s okay.”
I just love my little guy so much.