Accidents

While engaging in our coffee rituals yesterday there was a mishap.
I had my back turned and missed it, but the end credits rolled over Fuss staring up at me in trepidation from the center of a spreading mandala of coffee beans.

There are innumerable small moments like this in parenting, surprises that trigger instinctive responses.

I'm happy to report that a decade of therapy and several years of traversing the ever-evolving Fussoverse resulted in a totally satisfying reaction to this particular ambuscade.

"Oh, did you have an accident? That's okay, lets clean it up."
"Is okay, dada, we clean it up!"

We sat on the floor together picking up beans for a while, then retrieved his Little Broom from the pantry so he could sweep the rest into the dustpan.

Plenty of things with kids can go a lot of different ways. I like to think if enough little ones go in a good direction they gather up and accumulate momentum, hopefully enough to carry everyone over the inevitable ruts and boulders down the road.