Vivi got an “Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook” for Christmas. It’s a lovely deckle-edged tome of completely indirect references to the books paired with public domain recipes for traditional British foods. The recipe she wanted to make today was called “Queen Victoria’s Soup.” I read the whole series pretty thoroughly and couldn’t remember an appearance by Queen Victoria (or specifically soup). The note attached to the recipe read like: “Remember in that scene when Ron has a chill and says that soup would be good right about now? Here are 9 recipes for soup…yay, Harry Potter!”
At least the recipe only called for two ingredients that I didn’t have on hand: pearled barley and heavy whipping cream. Could anything SOUND more like Queen Victoria–fat and pearls? One quick trip to the grocery store and we were in business.
I pulled the tab off the carton of chicken stock and handed it to Vivi. I rotated the big Pyrex measuring cup so that she could see the markings and put on my best Mother Of the Year Finds a Teachable Moment voice. “OK, we need six cups but this only goes up to four. How many more cups will we need to add? Two, right! So if this is 4 of the 6 cups, what fraction is that? Go ahead and pour it to the four.”
And that’s the moment when I learned a messy lesson.
Vivi held the carton of chicken stock about two feet above the measuring cup then flipped the spout straight down. Chicken stock plummeted into the Pyrex cylinder, described a parabolic arc around the inside then rushed right back over the rim and all over the counter before I could even say, “Careful!”
She jumped away from the mess like it had scalded her. “Sorry sorry sorry sorry!”
My heart squeezed up. She’s been doing this a lot lately–apologizing madly if I correct her in any way. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. That’s the last word I want my daughter to practice. We all need to learn how to apologize when we’re at fault, but that kneejerk “Sorry!” that women overuse isn’t the same thing.
I’ve tried to talk to her about the “sorrying” in a couple of ways, but tonight I think I hit on the right word.
“Sweetie, this isn’t something hurtful that requires a ‘sorry.’ This is an accident while learning how to do something new, so how about ‘Oops!'”
Vivi laughed and tried it out, “OOPS!” That giggling word was music to my mothering ears and my heart unclenched an inch. When she and I are learning together, I don’t want SORRY to be the word she associates with me.
I worry at least once a day that I’m using the wrong words with her, that I’m screwing this mothering thing up, that I’m making a gigantic mess. I feel like I should say “Sorry! I don’t know what I’m doing!” when maybe what I should really say is “Oops! Learning this as I go along!”
I hope you’ll listen for “Sorry!” and see if “Oops!” might serve you better.
P.S. – The soup was terrible, but it was a valiant attempt at something new that devolved into a bland white mess. At least it was a mess we made together. Kinda like life.
Try this next time you want to say “Sorry!”
Ashley, your Daddy made a gallon of homemade chicken stock and when moving it from the stove to the sink he dropped a handle and the stock went everywhere including drawers he had left open, countertops, under the sink, floor, etc. He never said sorry, or for that matter oops he simply walked out of the kitchen…so I don’t want to make you feel bad but Vivi must have heard sorry at your house because she certainly did’t pick it up around here.
Actually he did say something but as I said it wasn’t oops or sorry.
Bwahahahaha!!! That’s hilarious. I guess he thought the dog pack would take care of most of it!
During the republican primary (yes, no capital was intentional) rick perry said ‘Oops’ when he couldn’t remember the third federal department he was going to abolish if he became president. Intend to go with the no capitals quite a bit for the next four years.
I hope he can manage to remember it when he’s trying to get to work.