Love shows up in the darndest places.

I have had Bee on my mind all week. Truth be told, aside from Gracie’s new rise-and-shine temper tantrums, Bee has been dominating the entire house this week. (Come to think of it, maybe that’s why she’s been so much on my mind.)I’ve decided there are many things about being three that drive me kinda crazy. Fierce independence that somehow she skipped over during her terrible twos. Laughing as she skips away, ignoring my request and her full name being bellowed behind her. The evolving sleep schedule, that somehow seems to be shortening with each approaching dawn. Opinions about EVERYTHING, oh yes she does. And the whining.

Oh, the whining! I feel like re-writing every Susan Boynton book out there. “The cow says Moo! The sheep says Baa! Three cranky 3-year-olds say Wah, wah, waah!” The crying is bad enough. It just causes every muscle in my body to tense up and my temper to shorten to a two-second fuse. Meh. That’s just mommyhood. What gets me is that Bee has this growing vocabulary and capacity to share her thoughts and yet when she starts with the whining, she’ll just cry and whine “Mooommmmy! Moooommmmy” over and over. On good mornings, I hold her hand and smooth her hair and calmly look her in the eyes and remind her to use her words (at least that’s why I say out loud). On my bad days, I might yell back, “What, what whaaaaaat?” Guess what kind of morning we were having today?

Ha ha! I tricked you! Today was actually a calm kind of morning, all because of a little heart of yogurt. I’ll tell you why. There are many things I really like about being three years old. Three is constantly seeking for approval and compliments, three is suddenly having a terrific sense of humor (and comedic timing), three is being able to play quietly with her sister for short periods of time (giving mommy a much needed break). And three is all about the manners. Every single time I hand Bee a napkin or a glass of milk or do any little thing, Bee pipe up with the cutest little “Tank you, Mom-meeee!”

This morning, despite the whining and the pallor of doom that had settled over the kitchen, Bee called me over to clean up her yogurt spill. (Chocolate yogurt. Very light blue jeans that were her last clean pair. We had our own Exxon-Casa de Katie spill going on.) Thing is, I swear one of the chocolate yogurt splatters was in the shape of a heart. (Insert perfectly edited photo of it here. You know. If I had that ability.)  The spontaneous yogurt heart made me pause and collect my calm. Bee’s sniffly “Tank you, Mom-meee,” sealed the deal. Grouchmeister or not, I love that little girl. Happy Love Thursday, everyone! May you find love in unexpected places today.

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Tags: Love Thursday, mommy, parenting, three years old, toddler