Refilling The Cup

The kids wake up entirely too early for my liking, I am not a morning person. I am beyond grumpy and when waking up things fall out of my mouth before I can even process them.
This morning was about to be no different- Derek got up early to head to work and since Trace sleep on a mattress on out floor he was woken up by the noise. He then thought it was time to get up. No child, is it even 5am yet? 
I asked him if he would like to climb into my bed and snuggle with me for a few more hours and of course he jumped at the chance. I wrapped my arms around him and prayed for the kicking and squirming to end soon. It didn't and my frustration began to rise. "Buddy you need to stop squirming and go back to bed or you will have to go play in your room for a little." 
"Nooooo! I don't want to be in my room!"
"Then go back to bed."
Yeah... wasn't happening. 
As I groggily woke up and got myself out of bed I calmly explained that maybe it would be best if he started sleeping in his own bed again at night, this way daddy wouldn't wake him up so early. Trace began to practically hyperventilate and scream that he wanted nothing to do with going back into his room. Why? No clue. I calmed him down and said we would talk about it later- I wasn't going to have a bad start to the morning. I know my attitude in the morning dictates the tone for the rest of the day. 
As the morning progressed I calmly asked Trace to sit on his potty and I would bring him some breakfast. He again began screaming that he didn't want to take his pants off by himself. He absolutely can take his own pants off. I explained I needed him to start doing certain things on his own to help me out for when the new baby comes. More tears, more complete unnecessary whining. 
At this point on any given day I would have probably lost my cool and quickly told him to do it himself and I would have walked away to regroup. This morning I stopped. I took him away from the situation. We sat down on the floor in the dark kitchen and I hugged him, I rocked him and we talked about the situation. Certainly the anxiety in the home has been palpable and I have only briefly skimmed the surface about the fact we are moving. There is more to his emotions then just taking his own pants off.
As we sat in the dark hugging and rocking I assured him I knew he was old enough to pull his own pants down and told him I would need some extra help from him from now on.
The change in his demeanor was amazing, just a few seconds of staying calm and loving him enough to fill his empty cup sent him off to the potty to do things on his own. Happily! 
Crisis resolved and I continued about my morning. Happily!
My cup had been filled just as much as his, because he was no longer screaming and crying I too felt much better. I am so proud of myself for being able to recognize a potential explosive situation that could have lead to both of us being even more upset and turning it around quickly and emotionally effective. 

This mornings mess
Breakfast and blogging
Extremely grey morning
Waking up
Potty time!
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