Born to Fly

I just got the kids to bed, and I am exhausted.  Tessie was great today, in fact, most of the day she was simply radiating brilliance.  Christian, on the other hand, was difficult to the full extent of the word.  Every transition to a new activity was like pulling teeth.  I couldn't get him interested in even doing his favorite activities, like wrecking block towers, or sitting outside in the grass.  At dinner he was behaving so badly that we had to send him to his room while Tessie got desert.  Not how I like to end the evening.  There was one moment, thank goodness, in the middle of the day that made the rest almost bearable.

We went to the park after lunch, all four of us.  Christian wanted to go straight to the swings, so that's where we took him.  For ten or fifteen minutes he was grinning from ear to ear, sailing through the air like he was born to fly.  With every push he squealed louder, and I felt lighter.  We couldn't help but feel his exuberance and joy.  There is something about the swings that takes away all of his frustration and anger.  When he is going higher and higher, he is just a two and a half year old boy, with a love of all things physical and dangerous.  When he was hard on me during the rest of the day, I thought back to Christian flying through the air.  The image if my blissfully happy son kept me from completely wanting to kill him several times today, and that is a very beautiful thing.