Nothing Like a Good Humbling

I am so often humbled by my children. They are my humblers, as my friend, Stan, would say. A couple days ago I was driving my 5-year-old home from preschool and becoming frustrated with my 3-year-old daughter's endless crying. Her crying seems to be a response to everything these days.

"Mommy, can I have a cookie?"
"No, honey, you haven't had any breakfast yet."
Big pouty lip, large tears begin to fall, then the grand finale - she runs to her room crying and screaming and closes the door. (I forget, is she 3 or 13?)

So, on this particular day I had asked my little girl to wait in the car, as she always does, while I ran out for 5.2 seconds, grabbed her brother out of the cold and pouring rain, and got back in the warm dry car. Well, though she opposed this plan, mommy insisted. My punishment - by the time I returned to the car the full-on wailing was underway. She had clearly been abandoned on the side of the road and left for dead.

As I attempt to ignore said wailing I am actually getting more and more annoyed. Finally I say, "If you cannot stop crying it means that you are tired and need to take a nap!" I am using tried and true parenting logic/scare tactics now.

Then, my 5-year-old, who has apparently been bearing the shrill sound of 3-year-old abandonment issues much better than I, says, "No, mommy, that's just how God made her."

I stop for a moment, the sound of grace and acceptance lingering in my ear. He's right. He's used to this. From the time my little girl arrived on the scene she has cried. I never actually called it colic (I have friends whose children actually cried for 12 hours a day), but this little creature of mine has cried - a lot.

Maybe she's just sensitive, maybe she's emotional (like me, huh, my brother did call me a cry baby quite often when I was young), maybe this is the way God made her.

I grab my Sesame Street CD and pop it in. Soon the tears subside as Elmo sings along with Hootie and the Blowfish and all is well in the world. Elmo always seems to make everything all better. Even mommy feels better as I realize that I've been humbled and given just a little bit of perspective by my 5-year-old.