My Little Gem

The morning dew glistened resulting in a million little prisms on each blade of grass. As I stared out the window, I was entranced by the nature surrounding me. A cardinal bobbed around searching for food and was startled unexpectedly by a doe and her two fawns making their way through our backyard. I jumped back from the window which alerted our dog who immediately started barking. The Ladybug and Bean were oblivious of the beauty I had just witnessed as their eyes were glued to the television.

“Mom, I want my picture up there like those kids. Look. See? Look. Mom?”, Bean said excitedly trying to get my attention as she pointed to the t.v.

“Yes, Etta. I'll send in a picture, OK? Now eat your breakfast please”, I repeated as I turned around looking back at my reality.

“OK. Thanks, Mama. You are the best mama eeeeva”, she said pulling at my heart strings.

Guiltily I grabbed my computer and searched the requirements to submit a picture to Disney Jr., and found that we had to create a treasure chest for their Jake and the Neverland Pirates promotion. After breakfast we looked in our craft bin and had everything we needed to create the chest – one large box, paper to wrap the box, adhesive gems, markers, fake coins, tape, ribbon, and glittered glue.

“OK, do NOT touch these gems. They are too small and I don't want these on the floor. Do you understand, Etta?” I asked. She nodded her head with temptation.

Moments later the inevitable happened...a gem was missing somewhere on the carpet. I was furious. I kept visualizing Ladybug finding it, putting it in her mouth, and choking. I demanded that she help me look for it by getting on our hands and knees and combing the carpet with our fingertips. She looked for one minute and gave up. She obviously didn't comprehend the degree of my fury. After searching frantically through each carpet fiber like a mad detective, I decided to give up. We ended up playing in Bean's room for the rest of the day since I didn't want to take a chance with the baby. I had never been this angry at Bean before and I felt so guilty for my feelings. She is only two years old. How could I be this mad at her? Once the girls went to bed for the night I decided to complete the treasure chest and unsuccessfully search one last time for the missing gem. I placed the finished product at the foot of Bean's bed hoping to ease any feelings of sadness I may have caused.

“Oh wow! My treasure chest! It's beautiful! Mama! Mama! Maaaaaaaaaaaama! Come see!” Bean screamed waking up the house. I smiled with excitement as I ran up the stairs to greet her. I got her dressed, grabbed my camera, took four good shots of her posing with the treasure chest, then emailed them off. They better pick her, I thought. If they only realized how much trouble parents go through for the slight chance that our kids' picture may show up on t.v. I shook my head and rolled my eyes at the thought. I looked over at the girls playing independently – Bean with her doodle pad and crayons, and Ladybug sucking on an alphabet block. I slowly placed my laptop on the floor, got on my hands and knees and started to growl like a lion. They both laughed and squealed, crawling away from me, enjoying our new found game of lioness chasing the cubs. I was growling in a low volume then let out a huge growl that scared Bean. She jumped back, shook her hands in disapproval, and fell backward over the little chair that was in her way. From the ground she screamed “truce!”. I stopped in shock then jumped up to grab and hug her. I quickly apologized for scaring her then asked how she knew the word truce {I was both proud that she used the word in proper context and her ability to verbalize her feelings}. She couldn't remember where she had heard the word but wanted a turn at being the lioness.
“My turn! My turn!”, Bean screamed. “OK, go! Chase us”, I said returning to the ground to crawl forcing Ladybug to follow in my direction. As Bean started chasing me she yelled for me to stop but I kept going. She got up from her crawl and ran toward me looking at my right foot. “Look, mama, the missing gem!”

“Oh my gosh, Etta you found it!” I said with relief.

“You're not mad at me anymore? I found the gem like you wanted”, she said with a pouty face.

“No baby. I'm not mad. Truce?” I asked?

“Yah, mama. Truce”.