Radvent Day 4: Caring

This year, I am focusing on a couple of things in the realm of "caring."

1. How my reactions to things affect my kids.
Lincoln absorbs everything. The other day, I dropped something and kind of flipped out about it. That night at dinner, Lincoln dropped a container of Bennett's little puffs onto the floor and they all spilled. Lincoln also flipped out--big time. I wonder if I had reacted in a calm manner to dropping my item earlier if he would have imitated that reaction instead. I am now choosing to put some careful thought into how I react to things. Dropping something on the floor doesn't warrant flipping out--we should save that kind of reaction for when we can't find any chocolate in the house or discovering Community is being placed on hiatus (kidding).

I have been modeling calm reactions to minor injuries (say, stubbed toes or a tiny scrape). Lincoln tends to cry and cry when he gets any type of minor injury, and then asks us for ice whenever he remembers said injury, up to a week later at times. He also likes to point out his injuries to everyone we run into (example: walking into mother's day out, we pass the music and exercise teacher. Lincoln: "Look! I got an owie on my finger. I got it at Winton's house." repeat each time we see them for the next 2 weeks.) I have been trying to model calmly saying, "Ow!! I got an owie. Oh, but it looks really small. I think I can still keep (doing whatever I am doing at the time). Yay!"

2. Taking care of myself so that I am a happier person around my family.
I've already mentioned this a few times, but I really do feel like a better and happier person when I make time to do things by myself. Problem is, I rarely remember that. Lucas is always telling me to go to a coffee shop or something, but I feel bad leaving the house since Mr. B is such a bad sleeper. But, I have been trying to improve on this area during the past year. Definitely a work in progress.