Mud

We have a garden spot in our backyard and then a second smaller spot across the grass as well. This year we didn't plant anything in that smaller spot and Gavin and Max have used it to dig in the dirt and "build" things. Mostly it just stores all of the junk they like to dig with and drives me nuts. Well today was NO exception to my loathing of this spot. I walked outside to work in the garden after Max fell asleep and found Gavin just letting the hose run into the dirt. Now we have a mud spot. And don't think that sounds bad? He was COVERED.



I'm trying to be a better mom and I'm really working on not flying of the handle the instant something goes wrong. It's hard for me. I tend to react quickly to things and I'm pretty darn good at yelling. This has been a super slow process but today I calmly walked off the deck over to Gavin and asked him what he thought I should do about this situation. He responded, "Uh...hose me off?" How on earth do you not smile at that? The whole situation was so frustrating and here he was with a really rational solution. I talked to him about the consequences for what he did and then decided it wouldn't be all that bad for him to just play in it since he was covered already. So I weeded, he played and then when it was time to clean him up he was great. When it was time to do his extra chores to make up for making the mud mess, he didn't complain. Hopefully I can remember to react that calm in the future when things get a little out of hand. Maybe I just need to look at the situation more rationally and remember that most of the time, we can just "hose things off".