Honestly, I promise you it's true and had it not happen to me personally I would only think it happens on tv (like America’s Funniest Home Videos) or in movies to bring laughter to the audience. Wet cement all over the left side of her body and my left foot.
The point of my story is that based on my reaction to the situation, it allowed this wonderful 2 year old to remain calm and not get all dramatic about what happened. She can thrive on the drama and show all kinds of tantrums with her mom and yet when she’s with me she listens, follows through with the 1,2,3 approach, and will even decide to go to time out when she knows she needs to sit, think, and make a decision to do the right thing. She doesn’t see it as punishment with me as much as she sees it as a time to cool down, think and regroup.
So on this day when we fell in wet cement we’re going to the library and a week earlier when we went she was fascinated with some construction that had been happening near the parking lot. Seeing the workers with the big dump truck and back hoe and how it all works to move the dirt and put it in the back of the truck. At 2 years old we have the opportunity to teach them sooooo many things because of their curiousity and hunger to learn. The question we must ask is, "Are we teaching them the positive or negative aspects of life?"
This week the men were laying cement and she watched as we walked passed them. We stopped to see the sculpture of the little boy reading a book. With her wonderful curiousity about everything we start pointing out parts of his body, like his nose, his ears, mouth, and feet, etc.
We’re now walking away to head toward to library entrance and we notice some orange cones and she touches them. When walking out in the community she always holds my two fingers for safety (as she gets older she might come to me one day and say I wasn't really paying attention to keep her safe on this particular day, wink) and as we’re touching the oranges cones we start talking about how her big sisters have cones just like this that they use when playing soccer in the yard. Well, I wasn’t paying attention as to why those cones were there and of course neither was this wonderful little two year old and as we take that next step upon touching the cones what do you suppose happened? Ya, you got it, the cone was an attempt to create a barrier of wet cement and she stepped in it, lost her balance and went down on her left side so that from feet to shoulder she got covered in wet cement. Fortunately, I was holding her other hand and immediately lifted her up and one of my feet went down into the cement. Can you picture it? My immediate response was, "Whoops a daisy" and then said "Hmm, sweetheart I think we’ll need to wait to go into the library. We'll go back home and clean up a bit and then come back". All the while she’s completely calm and looking at what happened, wondering what’s this stuff covering her left side. I explained to her that it was cement and she’s looking at her hand like she’s getting ready to taste it. I told her "no, babe we don’t eat that, it’s all sorts of dirt and we need to clean it off".
So we head back to the car.
On our way there we passed by the construction workers. I greeted them and told them I was really sorry to mess up there work, but there were now footprints over there where they had laid cement. They were very gracious and said they were sorry we got so messy in the process. I said, "oh no worries we’re headed home to get into the tub and we’ll be clean in no time". All this time this wonderful girl is remaining calm and maybe even in shock because she’s still trying to figure out what this stuff is. She keeps looking at her hand shaking it trying to see if the cement will come off and realizing it’s sticking there. I continue to reassure her not to worry that we will wash it off as soon as we get home.
When we get to the car before I consider putting her in her car seat I have to tell you I lost it. I started laughing hysterically like I can’t believe this is actually happening in real life. This laughing continues for a good 5 minutes, seriously, and you know what, she’s not laughing with me. She’s looking at me still speechless not knowing what to do. I explained to her that I was going to take off her coat and pants before I put her in the car seat so we could avoid having all this dirt in the car. She was fine with that. We were home in less that 10 minutes and went into the house getting ready for a bath. I’m still having spurts of laughter all through this ordeal. I’m thinking this is only suppose to happen on tv.
Bath time was great, she wanted to play with her toys and was completely content doing so for an hour. Singing, making bubbles, playing with her letters and numbers. We finished the bath and I packed a lunch for us to have at the duck pond and then we went back to the library without stepping in any wet cement.
Have you ever stepped in wet cement? If you have was it intentional? What was your response? It's been a few weeks since this occurred and I'm still laughing as I'm writing this post for you.
I share this story with you because what if I had responded differently when this occurred? What if I had freaked out with all this drama and caused her to get all dramatic about it? Well, it would have become a situation much bigger than it had to be when it didn’t need to. I was able to keep it light and gain laughter from it so she would know it wasn’t a big deal. Ask yourself, how would you have responded to this if it had happened to you?
In times of unexpected situations or stressful times what example are you setting for your child based on your reaction? Do you find humor? Are you calm in the midst of it all?
Share with me your thoughts and stories?
Comments