It was one of those days with three grouchy girls in the house, and when I let the contagious funk get the worst of me too. It was an estrogen overload. No doubt about it. We needed a boy around to balance our act. But we had none.
What we did have was chocolate.
My husband had a swanky work dinner 45 minutes away that night and it was supposed to be a fun movie night at home.
But no one wanted to watch the same movie. I caved and put a movie on my computer for my oldest daughter to watch and a “little girl show” on the TV for the other two to watch.
With the girls getting older by the minute (which is what it feels like to me lately), I’m savoring the days when the little girls squeal with excitement to watch Bubble Guppies. I love this age where they are still oblivious to the Disney Channel and the dreaded pre-teen shows that I have all my girls believing “do not work on our TV.” Yes I lie about that. A tiny white fib I am completely okay with.
Then Bubble Guppies finished before McKenna. My toddler was done watching all together, buttons were pushed without asking, movies ended before they were supposed to, one girl was pushed, there was feet stomping and loud crying. We all shouted and no one was listening to me.
I was acting just like them. So it’s no wonder why things went from manageable, to needing chocolate.
It was bedtime. No one had bathed and the dishes from dinner were still in the sink. And everyone was upset about something.
I tried to explain that all of this behavior was really rotten, by all of us. There is never a reason to hit your sister. EVER. It is never okay. I apologized for loosing my cool too, for getting upset at my soon to be three-year-old for all the reasons that makes the age 3 harder than 2.
It took some time. But finally I got everyone on the couch to apologize. And I waited until they SHOWED each other some sister love and not just say “I’m sorry.”
Then I took a depth breath and surprised them when I said, “Now lets eat chocolate!”
Three girls jumped up and down with giggles and ran together to the kitchen. They were giddy, together. TOGETHER!
It made my heart smile.
It was a bar of organic milk chocolate (different than the one shown on the top of the post but still one of my favorites). It was my special chocolate that I keep hidden in the cabinet and rarely share it with anyone. The girls know if they get a square of my “good chocolate,” that it’s something special.
I had already been sneaking some through the night with my red wine. So I split the last 12 small squares between the three girls.
They all said I was the best mom in the world and quickly forgot what a grouchy mom I had been just 30 minutes before that.
My oldest daughter gave me her last square of chocolate. My middle girl looked me in the eye with a shy grin that said I’m sorry but this is too good to share. My toddler had chocolate smeared all over her face.
Yes sometimes chocolate does make everything better.
