Matter, grace under fire, and a little fruit punch

matter 
–noun
1. the substance or substances of which any physical object consists or is composed: the matter of which the earth is made.
2. physical or corporeal substance in general, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, esp. as distinguished from incorporeal substance, as spirit or mind, or from qualities, actions, and the like.
3. something that occupies space.

If you know anything about the circus that is me, you may know that matter is irrisistably drawn to my person- usually the front of my shirt. But, this post isn't so much about that as much as it is about the substances of which Anna is composed. ;O)

This last Saturday my MIL, Anna and I went to Candice's (John's cousin's girlfriend's) baby shower. Being braver than usual, I wore a brand new outfit... what will happen next will shock and amaze you! Inside of 5 minutes of our arrival, and after arguing that since Anna is the normal messy 5 year old that maybe fruit punch in the host's living room was not such a good idea- Anna proceded to spill said fruit punch on the carpet. Fortunately, the host's carpet just happened to be a lovely mauve color so the mishap blended right in.

I quietly chided Anna as I cleaned the spill up, and quickly moved her punch out of arms length. Meanwhile, I turned mauve while apologizing to the hostess. Thankfully the attention soon moved from Anna and I, and the baby shower was under way. As we sat and munched on nachos, we talked and joked about babies, puppies, and mauve carpeting, Anna had managed to get her hands on her punch and sipped it quietly on the floor, to my right. Much to my horror, I managed to uncross my left left while punting- yes, PUNTING her styrofoam cup right out of her hand!

It went a little like this:
PUNT!

Anna: Arghh!

Me:*in slow motion* OOOOOOOOOH MARRRR GAAAARRRRHHHHHDDDD! *repeat 10 times, at normal speed*

None of this is that shocking or surprising to me, or to anyone else in my husband's family for that matter. What surprised me was this: despite having fruit punch dripping from her face onto her almost new shirt and pink camoflauge pants, my daughter sat there with a stunned look on her face, and arms poised in the requisite "I am soaked" position- she began to laugh. Her eyes lit up and crinkled, and she began to giggle uncontrollably. Her shirt and pants were soaked in spots (thank goodness she wore pink camo), but she sat there while 3 or more women attended to her.Now everyone in the room was giggling, mostly because I couldn't stop myself from taking the Lord's name in vain (see above), and was scurrying around for more napkins.

Under normal circumstances Anna can become upset very quickly, sometimes erupting into tears when things don't go her way. We have come to terms with the fact that this is just Anna, she can be high strung and a little high maintenance at times. *shrug* That's our girl... we deal with it as best we can. Lucky for me, the hostess brought Anna a clean T-shirt; this allowed me to clean her up in the restroom, soak her shirt in cold water, and also hide in humiliation. Even though I had once again managed to make a spectacle of myself, and the fact that she was feeling a little under the weather, Anna was surprisingly cheerful about the whole thing.

"Wow, mom... you sure are a goofball. Ya got punch all over me!" :O)

I am proud of my girl for keeping her cool, and still managing to have a good time despite her mom having wrecked the mauve carpet once again, and her entire (new favorite) outfit. I don't think that I could have accepted the cold wet fact that I would have had to sit there another 2 hours like that, and I am certain I would have been the one in tears. I have told her several times how proud I am that she was able to have a good time after all of that. My girl Is made of tougher stuff than I have given her credit for, and I realized I had taken that for granted.

To finish the story- soon after realizing that I had managed to escape complete humiliation buy having not spilled a single drop of fruit punch on my brand new white T-shirt, I dropped my cake on my lap twice and wrote on my brand new Mossimo Army green pants with an ink pen, by accident. I also realized that though I had survived the whole ordeal without any matter depositing itself on it's accustomed spot on my bosom, the Universe had righted itself and balance was restored once again. Three times over.

On my pants.