Thursday, November 13, 2008

An Angel

Today was one of those days that every mother has and every mother dreads. I was running errands, nothing special, just your run of the mill household stuff. I was prepared. I had drinks. I had snacks. I had stickers, paper and pen and of course, my trusty PDA that the kids love to use as a doodle pad. Things were going great. I was at the second stop. It was a short one. I was stopping at Michaels to pick up the icing colors and a larger cake pan to make Little TD's birthday cake. We were doing great until we went to the checkout. Princess TD put something in the cart for me, and Little TD had a total meltdown. He thought that she was getting something and he wasn't. No matter what I said, what I did, he wouldn't stop screaming. I mean SCREAMING!!! Really, what did he want there? All he could see from his vantage point were the rows and rows of silk flowers. Did he really want a flower? No, he just thought that his sister was getting something and he wasn't. Princess TD was great. She stood right by him and tried to sing the song she made up for him when he was a baby that would calm him down. Not working. She tried to hug him, stroked his hands, talked softly, gave him kisses, made silly faces. Nothing worked. Now while she was doing all of this, I was just watching, very proud of my little girl and her compassion for her brother.

That's when we met Terry. She was in front of us in line. She talked to me and said, "I remember those days. Don't worry Mom, we all have days like this. It will pass. " I smiled, thanked her and told her that I do realize that one day I will miss them being this little. It was then that she began talking to Little TD. She asked him how old he was going to be on his birthday, what kind of cake he wanted and a couple of other innocent questions that made him stop screaming immediately. He answered his questions and that was that. He was done. The rest of the stops went smoothly. I don't know who she was, but Terry was an angel sent to help us out today. Thank you, Terry!

1 comment:

JSue said...

Okay, I think Terri must have gone to Walmart after she left you. I was grocery shopping (during naptime - not real smart on my part) and was noticeably flustered with the children. Nothing big, really...they were just not staying with me and touching everything. Very out of character for my girls. Anyway, this nice lady leaned over to me as she passed and said with a smile, "Don't worry, it will get better." We talked for a brief moment...long enough for me to learn that she also had three children who were spaced about the same as mine, and she survived.

It's nice to have an older lady understand for once instead of giving those disapproving glares like everyone else seems to do...

Love ya, girl!