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| Posing with the Tiger statue at Clemson |
I had to giggle when I first saw the word prompt for today. The first thing I thought of is J’s text message tone on his cell phone. You see, my husband and son are both big Clemson Tiger fans. I’m talking HUGE fans – Noah’s room is orange and purple and adorned with tigers and tiger paws so when J got a new cell phone a few months back, he started looking for new ringtones and text message tones. He ended choosing a tiger roaring as his text message tone so every time he gets a text message, you hear a big “RRRRROARRRRR.” It’s actually quite annoying, especially if he forgets to turn his phone down before we go to sleep and he gets a text message. I have woken from a dead sleep to the phone roaring and for half a second I wonder if I am waking up in a jungle.
But recently, we had some tender Tiger moments. On the scariest night ever when Noah had the grand mal seizure, J and I were with Noah in an exam room in the Children’s Emergency Room at a local hospital. As the nurse was messing with Noah, he was fussing a little bit. J and I were both talking to Noah trying to get him to relax so they could do what they needed to do and check him out. J began telling him to be “brave like a tiger.” J had never used that exact expression with Noah before and I am not sure what it was about the phrase but it helped Noah calmed down. The nurse was also a huge Clemson fan so a whole conversation ensued about Noah’s Clemson room, calming and relaxing him a bit more.
A couple of days later, we were at the lab with Noah and they were trying to get blood from him. Once again, J told him to be “brave like a Clemson Tiger.” Once again, he calmed down.
My boy has been through a lot lately but he’s always brave like a tiger.
I love this. "Brave like a tiger." It is wonderful when we can find little things to help calm our kids down. I was a children's librarian for a little while and one of the things I learned in my training is that simple nursery rhymes and songs can be used to regain control in a situation where kids are frightened, anxious, or generally just misbehaving. Now, many years later and without realizing it, I have apparently trained both my kids to respond to a silly song about winding up a bobbin.
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful to have these kinds of tools, as it also reminds *me* to calm down, too.
That is so unbelievably and incredibly sweet. I love that and I'm a sappy gal crying my eyes out right now (and thinking about how I hope that some of the Tiger athletes can live up to that saying/motto).
ReplyDelete-Mel the Crafty Scientist