Who is Really the One Learning Here?

Jesse is begging me constantly to work on a project- meaning artwork of some form, preferably messy. So we've been painting a lot, and today we did a project my parents sent out to him. It involved sprinkling tiny foam pieces onto a sticky parrot. He had to match up the colors with numbered sections on the parrot to make it like the one on the package. He was being as patient as he could stand while I neatly tidied up all the stray pieces of each color of foam before we moved on to the next color, and I realized I was being completely lame. I caught myself lecturing him when he leaned forward and blew some pieces all over the place while I was trying to clean them up, and I thought, what am I going on about? What did he do that was so wrong? What would it hurt for me to just let it go and bring a little fun into his day? So- full of anxiety- I picked up a few pieces and threw them at him, and smiled when he looked at me like I'd really lost it. He cautiously reached for some pieces, and when he saw me still smiling he threw them at me, and the inevitable war ensued. Gabe even ran over to join us. You know what? We had fun. I hope I can remember this and learn from it. And what do you know, cleaning it up after was no big deal.
P.S.- I'd been watching for chances like this because a good friend of mine is really great about these things, and she helped me realize the value in it. Who knows how long it would have been before I clued in to the need to join in the fun of my kids' childhood? What more would I (and the kids!) have missed out on? So to that person, thank you for this moment and the endless ones to come- from my kids and from me.