growing up

A surprising interaction between little nael and j happened earlier this evening. Snowboarder and I had to do a couple of errands today and snowboarder decided to take the kids along instead of having them stay home with my parents. Snowboarder loaded the kids in his truck along with the balloons they got from a birthday party the night before. I found it strange that snowboarder would let the kids take their balloons but I didn't say anything. Our first stop was Home Depot and when the kids got out of the truck, I made sure the balloons were in the front seats so they wouldn't fly off when the doors opened. Our next stop was Kohl's. Before I got out, I told nael who was playing with the balloons to make sure the balloons don't fly out. She agreed with me, grabbed both balloons to put aside in the truck then I stepped out followed by j. J and I started walking towards the store entrance and not even a minute later, I hear snowboarder saying "Uh-oh, there goes j's balloon!". I look back up and I see a balloon floating away. I turned to J but he didn't seem to hear or notice anything so I didn't say a word. It wasn't until we pulled into our garage when j started asking for his balloon. As I unbuckled him, I told him to ask his father who in turn replied, "go ask your sister." J got in the house and asked his sister for his balloon. Snowboarder and I stood back and waited for nael's reply. Apologetically, nael explained that his balloon flew away by accident. Then, she handed j her balloon and told him he could have hers instead. J simply said "oh!" then gladly took big sister's balloon. Thankfully, there were no tears or whining on j's part. Snowboarder and I were surprised by how nael handled the situation. She owned up to her mistake and found a resolution without any prodding from us. I told nael right after how proud we were of how she handled the situation. She's not a little girl anymore...she's growing up!