Don't Cry Over Spilled Smoothies

I've finally figured out a way for my little guy to ingest fruits and really enjoy them. Every day, I get my blender out and throw in a mix of some of the yummiest seasonal fruit, freshly squeezed OJ and vanilla flavored BIO yogurt. He gulps it down and then in his cutest possible voice, lifts the cup to me and says "Ama(aka Ema), Mo(aka More!)".

Yesterday morning we were all dressed and ready to go to preschool when he decided he wanted a little more "O juice" (that's what he calls most juices). The baby was dressed and waiting patiently in the double stroller and my sweet little boy went for the cup that was sitting on the table, saying "finish me!". I guess he must have tripped over something, because the cup went flying out of his hands, and the juice splashed all over him and all over the floor. Right then and there, I stopped in my tracks and thought" This is a perfect teachable moment, Cigal. Don't get annoyed. It was an accident. He didn't do it on purpose and the way you respond to him is SO important"...
"Oh, Oh", I said..."Your yummy juice spilled on the floor...I'm so sorry, honey. You must be disappointed because you really wanted to drink it. Ema is going to clean the floor up so no uninvited guests come over (aka ants). After I clean the floor, I will wash you up, change your clothes and give you more juice if you would like". And that's exactly what I did: I wiped the floor, washed him up, put on dry clothes and gave him more smoothie to drink. Even though he was covered in juice, he was giggling and clapping his sticky little hands as I sang silly songs to him while washing him up and changing his clothes. All the while, his little sister was waiting patiently in their stroller playing with her dolly. After gulping down his drink, we headed to preschool and got there a half hour late.


Fast forward to the late afternoon. The same exact thing happened with his smoothie. Somehow, the cup slipped out of his hands and splashed all over the floor, our couch and him. It felt like G-d was testing me to see how I would respond this time. I was determined to pass the test. Instead of getting annoyed or impatient, I said " My sweet little boy, you're just not having any luck with your drinks today, are you? It's not the end of the world, honey. Ema can always make you more, if you would like". I cleaned him, the couch, and the floor and gave my little guy a big hug and said "I love you, my sweet boy". He then led me to the kitchen by the hand, opened the fridge door, pointed to the blender with the juice in it and said "MO!".


What was the lesson I was to learn from this? What was the lesson I wanted to impart to my boy? That Life often throws us curve balls. Sometimes those curve balls are small annoyances and other times, they're big and seemingly insurmountable obstacles. I want to teach my kids how to roll with the punches. How to "go with the flow" and not sweat the small stuff. In this case, there was no use at all to cry over the spilled smoothies.

With Love,

Cigal