Awakening

Our parenting skills were really put to the test today, and I think we got the first taste of a really tough parenting situation. I went to my friend, Mindi's, house to work out this morning. On our way out the door to head home, Carter runs downstairs really fast and comes back up and quickly heads outside. As we got back to our house, he was acting really strange. He had his hands in his pockets and it occurred to me that he was hiding something. I asked him what was in his pocket and he said, "Don't look at me mommy." Something he usually says when he has done something he doesn't want us to know about. Come to find out, he had taken a compass and metal jet from my friend's house. I knew what had to be done, and as I explained to Carter that he needed to take the toys back to his friend's house and apologize, he instantly started crying and working things out in his head. He kept saying, "Mommy, you say it." I explained, of course, that this had to be something he did since he took the toys. I called Matt at work to get his opinion on how we should handle this situation and he talked to Carter for a little bit again explaining that he had to go over and apologize. It took him about an hour and a half to get up the courage to do it, but he eventually did. He took the toys back and said he was sorry. He said a little bit later, "Mommy, I feel better now." "Why?" I asked. "Because, I took the toys back and said I was sorry." Hopefully this is a lesson learned.