Sometimes you just need to take a deep breath.

Take the other morning for example.
I am trying to leave the house for work early in the morning on one of those really cold days. You know the kind. Where you just want to shrink down into your parka like a turtle into it’s shell.

Eldest Daughter is starting to loose it. “Mommy, I will sure miss you when you’re gone. Mommy, you know why I’ll miss you? Because you’re not here.” And then the tears start and the lower lip gets all puffy and we start the 10 minutes of hugs at the door. “ok, last hug, mommy has to go.” “ok, last hug, daddy is waiting” and I’m inching closer to the door. By the time she starts really sobbing I have one foot out the door and cold air is swirling around us. She is begging for “one more hug”. She pleads “Mommy, make me feel better mommy” and she’s frantic now and I say “I don’t think I can make you feel better sweetie” and now she is blubbering and I have top make her repeat it twice “Make me take a deep breath, Mommy”.
OK, this is different, I think. So I bend over in the doorway, cold air rushing around us and hold her in my arms and tell her to breath deep and we stay in the doorway, breathing deeply together for a minute until she’s calm enough to finally let go. And I move out the door into the world and she retreats back into the house to have breakfast in her pyjamas.