Sweet Talk

Yesterday morning, Ezra wanted to get up way too early. It’d already been a long night and I was not ready to wake up. I eventually gave in, went downstairs, and helped him escape from his crib prison. We went into the family room and laid down on the couch together. Dad made too much noise leaving for work, so Ezra wanted to play. I turned on his light in his room and felt pleasantly surprised when he started to play independently. Back to the couch I went.

I could hear Ella in her room reading books to herself. I prepared myself to get up, but Ezra created a distraction when she exited her room. She detoured to his room and declared with delight, “Ezra!” She then went on to say, “Ezra, let me tell you a story” in the sweetest, sing-song, honey-filled voice. She repeated this several times, busily moving around him while he played and made sweet talky noises back. I expected her to get frustrated, but she was unexpectedly patient, changing her tactic to “You play with your truck. I will read you a story.” And she did, sharing several stories with him. Things went on this way for  awhile, little brother reveling in the attention, big sister babying and loving on her little brother.

I even tempted fate and sneaked upstairs to climb back into my bed. This didn’t last long, but I enjoyed a few moments of solitude and reflected on this sweet moment between my kids. Sometimes I worry that too much of life is discipline, hurrying from place to place, consequences, responsibility, time out, mom-has-to-get-this done. But listening to my little girl I realized that she modeled that behavior, that we’d talked sweetly that way with her, delved into story time, invited her to play, remained patient with distractions. And I felt so grateful to know that we must be doing something right.