A little bit of mess

They are my kids.  They have made a little bit of mess on the kitchen floor.  I was not planning to clean the kitchen floor today, but now I have to.  See the thing stands like this.  They were not supposed to do this, but they did.  Now I have to ask myself.  Is this my fault?  An adult mother, of a two and a three year old?  Or is it them being misbehaving?  A two and a three year old?

I was doing the washing and ironing.  Hannah ran into the room, with Bradley behind her.  ”Mommy, can we bake cupcakes?”  she asked with hope in her eyes.  ”If you behave well, you can bake some cupcakes later”  I answered.

They are quiet, so I go to check.  They have started the cupcakes all by themselves.  My heart sinks.  There is flour everywhere.  Milk is spilled.  Thank goodness the eggs are still intact.  Hannah looked up at me:  ”Mommy can you please take the pink food colour out of the cupboard, we are making you pink cupcakes.”

“Keep calm.  Keep calm.” I tell myself.  And then I did, because I saw it.  They are proud.  They are doing it right.  They are doing it just as I taught them. They are having a go.  In their eyes, they are succeeding in this cake  baking business.

I know that I have told them we will do it later.  I know that I meant we will do it together later.  But really now, what is later?  To a 2 and 3 year old this was later.  To them I gave them permission.  To them, this were exactly how it was supposed to be.

I got a bit annoyed:  ”Hannah, what is this mess? Why are all this flour on the floor?”  She looked at me a bit confused:  ”Sorry mommy, Bucky dropped it, but I am picking it up again, see?”  Putting hands full of flour back in the bowl.

I thought to myself.  That’s a bit of mess on the floor.  No one is hurt.  No one meant any harm.  This is how we learn.  This is how we will now continue to learn.

We cleaned up the mess, and then by accident, we made a bigger mess.  Bradley dropped the bottle of milk, and it went everywhere.  Hannah, slipped and fell in the mess.  She lost her three-year-old-mess-maker-selfcontrol and start to make flour angels.  A bit like snow angels, but just in flour.  Everyone laughs.  Bradley laughs, Hannah giggles.  I am smiling.  I just did it.  I just kept calm.  I just saw deeper than a mess.  I just saw through the eyes of a toddler.

Today, the kitchen is clean, the kids are clean, and we still have not made any cupcakes, because we ran out of flour.  Today we are happier than yesterday.  Today, the kids trust me more than yesterday.  Today we are better off, because we learned a few lessons.  All of us.

And we are richer, because we just made another awesome childhood memory.