oh my kids!

I was already thinking about joining the bloggers but wasn't quite sure where to begin, and then today happened and I had to share. It all started when Lincoln was playing alone in his room. I heard a bang, bang, then a snap, and Lincoln appears at my door with Natalie's plastic flute broken in two. I lectured him on being too hard on things and he said he was sorry and asked if Natalie would be mad at him. I assured him that she would and gave him a time out. (I was hoping to make an impression) As soon as the time out was over he didn't seem to be phased and I chalked it up as a good try but, oh well. Then when it was time to pick up Natalie from the bus stop Lincoln said he wanted to come along--usually he wants to stay home and play computer so I was a little surprised. We kicked at ice and stomped on what was left of the tiny snow balls that fell sometime the night before. (It was so windy and cold last night that it froze the snow into the tiny dots just like the icecream at the baseball games--pretty cool) Natalie was excited to see us and we had only taken about ten steps when Lincoln turned to her, looked straight in her face and said. "Natalie, I broke your flute." Natalie's face looked surprised, then confused, then turned mean and she said, "I just got that flute!" I had already forgotten about the flute since it cost $1. I was surprised by Lincoln's honesty and that he felt he should get it out of the way. Natalie walked off and Lincoln called after her. "Are you mad at me?" Then he started to cry and I grabbed his hand, we started walking and I told him I was proud of him for being brave and being honest. I was really proud of him. So then he asks me if Natalie was mad and I said yes and he said he didn't want her to be mad and I said she wouldn't be mad forever which he repeated to her as we were hanging up our coats. She said she wouldn't be mad forever with heavy sigh and He told her she can't be mad on Saturday, Sunday, or Thursday--she then informed him in was Tuesday so he then included Tuesday. After that he ran upstairs and brought down the broken pieces of the flute and gave them to her and she said maybe dad could super glue it and I said maybe I could super glue it, which I did, and miraculously enough it worked. But I have to add that before Natalie knew if we could fix it Lincoln apologized one more time and she said, "it's ok Lincoln." I was amazed at how well they both handled the situation. I was very impressed and hadn't prompted any of it. I told them how that was how we treated friends and that even though they were brother and sister I could tell they were good friends. I was feeling very proud of both of them when about 5 minutes later Lincoln grabbed something off the counter and the flute flew off and broke into three pieces . . . seriously kid.