My Princess turned 5!

Well, the last few weeks have been busy and filled with fun and dealing with yucky colds all at the same time! All of us have been hit with varying intensities, and this time, my super-immunity did not hold up and I am hacking up a storm! Lynsey seems to be fine now, and both Adam and Nathan have had symptoms come and go over the last few weeks. Not a lot of fun! Nathan has been quite needy and miserable a lot of the time, which I attributed to his cold, but today Brian noticed that he has a new tooth on the top! It's not one of the front ones either - a side one. Odd. Anyway, good to know we got a tooth for all the misery! He has also been moving all over the place, exploring the main floor with his army crawl. I am starting to wonder if he will ever figure out crawling on his hands and knees! I guess I read him wrong:).

Lynsey had a big week! On Wednesday, she went trick-or-treating for the first time:). And on Saturday, we had her big 5th birthday bash! It was a lot of fun, but quite a lot of work for me. I don't think we'll do such big shindigs every year. I'm glad she had fun, though! She was apparently quite tired of being 4, so turning 5 was a big relief:).

Adam is doing really well in preschool! They are even getting him to join them for circle time sometimes, which is something I have a hard time imagining. He has also made it through Sunday School without me for two weeks in a row! I attribute this success to preschool - it has helped him a lot with transitions.

I am going to tell a story of something that happened to me today, even though it was a bit of an embarrassing moment. I learned something and it made me think, which is why I will share it! We had a big dump of snow here today, and roads were not the best. I took Lynsey to Kindergarten with the toboggan, but that was a lot of work so I decided when I picked her up, I would drive. I had both boys with me (we kept Adam home from preschool today because he's been a bit sick). I left so that I would be there 25 minutes before the bell rang in hopes to get a spot where I could see Lynsey's door and just leave the boys in the van when I went to get her. When I got there, the only spot left was halfway into the bus zone. I decided to take it anyway because I was desperate. I parked really close to the van in front of me (I did not realize how close at the time!). I took Nathan out of the car seat and gave him his bottle and let Adam play in the driver's seat while we waited. He was "driving" away, turning the wheel, which must have inched us forward ever so slightly in these very slippery conditions. The woman in front of us got out of her van and looked at the space between our vans and started waving her arms. I was still giving Nathan his bottle but I got out and she was gesturing at the bumper and I looked and sure enough, our bumpers were indeed touching. She said she had felt a bump (which is what lead me to the conclusion that something Adam was doing must have moved the van forward ever so slightly because she felt it long after I parked). I apologized profusely and told her I would back up so we could see if there was any damage. I was pretty flustered as you can imagine, trying to get the boys back in their car seats so I could deal with this, and when I backed up, we observed that there was indeed no damage (PHEW!). I apologized again and explained what must have happened and that I was trying to get as far out of the bus zone as I could (I was rambling a bit - I do that when I'm flustered or nervous) but I said I was sorry several times.

The reason I write about this is because of how this whole thing made me feel. When she first got out and saw that our bumpers were touching, she looked so disgusted with me - I felt like the world's biggest idiot (to be fair, I did just "hit" a parked car, so maybe that's what I was!). She waved her arms at Adam sitting in the driver's seat, adding to that feeling, "world's worst mother". She did lighten up considerably when she saw that there was no damage (although she did try to point out some black mark way over on the side where I clearly did not hit her, but she didn't pursue it when I pointed out where the bumpers touched). By the end she wasn't as mad anymore, although when I apologized for the last time, she just said, "well, be careful" or something like that.

This experience taught me something. I felt sick for about 2 hours after this happened (it didn't help that Adam had a grade A tantrum when we got home for who knows what). I was humiliated, and to make matters worse, I see her every day because her kid is in Lynsey's class! It made me think of how much grace I give to people. How do I make other people feel when they make mistakes? Do I humiliate people unknowingly because of my reaction (or most often over-reaction)? How much grace do I give my own family?

I do want to cut this lady some slack - like I said, I did hit her parked car so she had every right to be annoyed about it. I will say that back when I had that accident when the van was new over three years ago, the lady I dealt with was so gracious, and I will never forget how much easier her grace made that whole awful experience. I want to be the person that makes someone feel better not worse when they make a mistake. The last thing someone who's made a mistake needs is someone else to make them feel like crap - they probably already feel that way. I know I did today.