a tool in the toolbox

I like to think part of my job as a mom is to put tools in my son's toolbox for dealing with life's challenges. I was proud to see him utilize one such tool this weekend. Saturday morning I was sore and grumpy having worked out on Thursday. He came into my room, all sunshine, climbed up on my bed and said, "Good morning!" Weakly smiling I returned "good morning". He then wanted me to fix his computer because the screen was black. Nope, sorry sweetie, I'm not ready to get up. His short little fuse ran out and he immediately cried. UGH. "But I want you to fix it!!! WAAAAAH!" I said NO about FOUR times before I said.... "I won't say NO again. You have two choices: you can play with something that works, or you can crawl into bed with me and cuddle." To my surprise he stopped crying and crawled into bed to cuddle. ...fidget...squirm...fidget...squirm... After 15 minutes he was bored and said, "I'm going to get up now." UGH. "Ok love, I'm going to sleep some more." "Ok!" 10 minutes later... "Mom, come here!" "No, I'm not ready to get up yet." "MOM, come here!" "NO, I'm not ready to get up yet." "MOM, COME HERE!!" Grrrrrr. "Z, BACK OFF!" .... silence.... By then I had given up on any more time in bed, rolled my sore body out, slipped on whatever was lying on the floor, and went to check on him in his bedroom. I found him on his bed, sitting in the lotus position with his eyes closed. He opened them with a sheepish smile. I asked him what he was doing and he replied, "I'm meditating to calm down." I hid the fact that this was the cutest thing ever. He unfolded and sat on the edge of the bed. I sat down next to him and said how proud I was of such a big-boy thing. We chatted about it and then he said, "I'm not done. I want to meditate some more." With seriousness, he resumed the position; I moved to leave and stood there observing. He opened his eyes and said, "You can go now..." If you know my 5 year old son at all, then you know how darn adorable this scene was and it will thankfully live on in my memory for a long, long time!