"Mary had a little man..."

Somedays I feel like a better father than others. This morning got off to a frustrating start. In my defense I must say it is hard to maintain one's composure when you are awoken at 5 AM with your child (who refused to eat dinner) complaining about being hungry. I resisted the futile attempt of trying to explain that if she ate dinner at night she would not be feeling so hungry in the morning. Unfortunately Grace's early morning wake up call was accompanied by her opening and shutting her door forcibly. I know she was not trying to slam her door and be loud, but for Grace there is no volume below "maximum". Of course Grace's morning calls woke up Julia which pushed me over my limit...(i.e. my temper got the best of me). Soon after Grace was screaming at me from her bed telling me to "leave her room" and that I am a "mean guy".

I retreated to my bed as Ellen got Julia back to sleep. Of course, then it was 5:15 AM, I was awake, Grace was hurt, and I felt terrible about what just happened. By 5:45 Grace was singing "Mary had a little lamb" from her bed. I decided to just get up with her and try to get our day on the right track. I retrieved Grace and we made our way downstairs for what has proved to be a perfectly typical morning with smoothies, coffee, toast, and some play. The resilience of children is amazing. My only hope is that there are few residual scars from these bad morning encounters.

What made the morning so much easier for me was listening to Grace sing when I went to retrieve her. I realized her choice of lyrics and felt compelled to share them. To the tune of "Mary had a little lamb", she sang:

Mary had a little man, little man, little man
Mary had a little man, and police came out of snow

How is that for cuteness?

Craig