Starbucks Mug

Light of my life is currently on candy restriction. She’s not allowed to have it at all….period…..end of story. She can’t bring it home and she’s not allowed to have it. I know I can’t control her eating candy when I’m not with her and I accept that.

At church this past Sunday, before the sermon, B’s brother in law talked to all the kids (see one of the prior posts). They leave the pew and go to the front of the church and stand around while he tells them an amusing story that relates to something about God or Jesus or stories in the Bible. They all then get a piece of candy and go sit back down with their parents.

Well, since light of my life is on candy restriction I had remind her before she went up to the front that she couldn’t get any candy. Well, that pissed her off. She flounced back down in the pew and announced that if that was the case, she just wouldn’t go up there. Oh, boy. That was the wrong thing to say. I reminded her that the reason she went up there was not to get a piece of candy but to listen to what Mr. K had to say. The candy was just an extra. I made her go up there. After he got finished with what he had to say (again, see one of the prior posts), he mentioned that he had some special Valentines’ candy for the kids. Man, oh, man….did I feel like a heel then. Light of my life looked back at me with such longing in her eyes that I so badly wanted to reverse my decision and give in. However, I had to remain firm. I shook my head no and she pouted her way back to the pew. She actually sat there and cried while in church. My heart was breaking but I couldn’t do anything about it. She was crying silently so unless someone was watching, you didn’t even know she was doing it. I just let her cry.

Now, this is the amazing part and this is just one of the many, many, many, many reasons why I love and admire my daughter so much.

She kept pulling away from me on the pew and wouldn’t allow herself to lay down on my lap like she normally does during church (yes, I know, bad mommy). However, she didn’t pull away from me rubbing the back of her neck or stroking her hair. She also eventually stopped crying (without any prompting from me) and laid down on my lap. She started playing with my fingers and snuggling a bit.

She did all of this without me prompting or encouraging her. I thought that showed huge signs of maturity that she managed to get over the whole situation without me having to have a discussion with her or threatening her or punishing her.

I also thought I showed incredible signs of maturity by letting her work it out on her own instead of having a discussion with her or threatening her or punishing her.

I’m so proud of us. I think we’ll be fine. Of course, I say that now…..I can only imagine what it’ll be like in a few years when she hits 13.

She later went to Wal-Mart with M, C and their grand-parents while mom and I went traipsing through a daffodil field. I had gone to the bank to get some money for her lunch and her allowance (I never keep cash on me) and was only going to give her a $10 but decided to let her have the whole $20 to spend. I advised her that she had to buy her own lunch but that she could keep the change. She was so thrilled.

Know what she did with the extra $10 she had?

Spent it on me.

She bought me a Starbuck’s coffee mug with Starbucks hot chocolate and marshmallows. It was one of those special Valentine’s combo present things. I’m not a huge fan of hot chocolate but I do like Starbuck’s hot chocolate and I had been contemplating buying one of their mugs. It was a great present.

I just could not get over her generosity (albeit with my money).

I am so proud of her.

Later,

Mama Dawg