Flowers For Grandma

So today has not been the smoothest day so far. It’s the second day of a weekend without their Mom and the kids have been fighting me quite a bit. Back talk and pretending they don’t hear me, tantrums, you get the picture. And I have to admit that I have not been the perfect Dad today either. I’ve lost my cool a handful of times. My anger is something I’ve always struggled to control and I’ve had to get pretty good at apologizing to our kids and they’re always so gracious.

I’m gonna share one story from yesterday real quick to bolster how awesome we think our kids are, like we don’t do that enough already.

Just about every time we walk past the flower section at Costco, Dekker pipes up and asks if we can buy flowers for Hailey. Now Costco flowers are generally well priced and decent quality but we just don’t always have money to buy flowers every week so usually the answer is ‘That’s a lovely thought dude but i think we should leave it for another time.’ He usually understands and we keep moving. Last week I agreed. Laela got in on it real quick and both of them chose the same bouquet for their Mom to enjoy when she got home from her hair appt. It was lovely and sweet and they brought it up every chance they got for a couple days.

Then yesterday morning we were all at Costco again for our weekly purchase of milk and bananas and very predictably, Dekker piped up when we were passing the flower stand. But this time he says ‘Dad, can we buy flowers for Grandma?’ and Laela started bouncing and joined in immediately. ‘Ya! Can we buy flowers for Grandma?!’

So with a little guidance and mediation I managed to find a bunch that the both agreed she would like and we brought them home for her. And she was delighted.