The Giggles

Today was a pretty average day in our household.  There were moments of greatness; the kids and I made “stained glass” ornaments out of wax paper and crayons and they had a blast.  There were moments of pain, Christian waking up at five-to-six, Tes playing the “I’m gonna stand in front of you no matter what you try to do” game while I was trying to clean, the usual hair pulling frustration of motherhood.  However, I still had a handful of moments I was considering writing about this evening until the perfect moment came and blew them all away.

Our nighttime routine consists of bath, pajamas and brushing teeth, which I take care of.  Then the kids read books with Nick while I gather up their bedtime stuffed animals and tidy up.  Tonight I joined Nick and the kids for story time.  All four of us snuggled up in Christian’s room on his mattress and Nick read to us.  In the middle of the first book Tessie blurted out the word “juicy” and for no apparent reason we all collapsed into giggles. 

I laughed until my cheeks hurt and I couldn’t see.  Tes and Christian laughed until no sound came out.  Nick looked at us like we were crazy, but the good kind of crazy that makes you fall in love.  We finally settled down and Nick finished the books.  I tucked my babies into bed with kisses and hugs and I love yous.  My moment of pure happiness and hysteria with my family was perfectly beautiful and just what I needed.

My giggly kids, earlier in the day

Watermelon Face

Today's moment is simple. The kids and I went to a baby shower today. It was a beautiful day, and the kids were excited to go to a party. Tessie immediately befriended another little girl at the party and ran off to play in the grass. I got Christian a heaping pile of fruit and we sat down in the shade.

Christian attacked his plate with gusto. He devoured the grapes, cantaloupe and watermelon in a matter of minutes. After each bite he let out a satisfied "mmmmmm."  His favorite was the watermelon. He ate it as far down the rind as possible, letting the juice run down his chin. When he finished it was hard to tell if he had actually ingested a thing, there was so much fruit on him. His happy little watermelon face was wet, sticky and absolutely beautiful.

My Son, the Artist

It amazes me how different my children are.  Tes is such a girl and Christian is such a boy.  Aside from that they also have completely different senses of humor, sleep patterns, and views of the world around them.  However, there are ways in which they are very similar.  One of their biggest areas of common interest is art.  They both love to create, whether by painting, coloring, or drawing.  I have piles and plies of artwork that Tessie has created from a  very early age on.  I don’t have nearly as much collected yet for Christian and the reason is simple.  He hasn’t been able to control his body enough to really make art. 

There are two things making it hard for Christian to work on art projects.  The first is his low tone in his trunk, meaning he can’t sit up unsupported.  The second is his fine motor delay, meaning he has a hard time holding small objects like crayons or markers.  We have had success with finger-painting, although Christian was very curious about how the paint tasted and I eventually had to take a time out from the medium.  What Christian really wants to play with are crayons.  He is always asking for crayons and wanting to draw.  After finally growing out of the constantly-eating-crayons stage we have been trying to color more often.  Usually he will grip the crayon with his whole fist and mimic the back and forth motion his sister makes, but this just results in his knuckles brushing the paper and little or no crayon marks appearing.  This leads to him getting frustrated and mad.

Today he really wanted to color and so I set him up with a big sheet of paper and a selection of crayons.  I watched as he picked up the crayon in a much more sophisticated grasp, sat up tall and made a big dark line across the paper.  He was delighted, as was I, at this new-found skill.  He proceeded to change colors, techniques and created a wonderful work of art.  Christian was so pleased with himself and giggled with joy when I hung his artwork up in his bedroom.  I love art, I cry in art museums.  And of all the art I have seen, my son’s creation this morning was the most beautiful by far.

All Things Garden

Holding her first worm.

I grew up with my mom constantly trying to instill a love of all things “garden” in me.  I am sure it is because of this that I have absolutely no problem with getting my hands in the dirt.  I can pull anything, deal with any bug, and it doesn’t phase me.  I have been a little concerned that my daughter, the princess, might have a more difficult time than I. 

Today I was taking the opportunity given by recent rains to pull weeds out of soft soil.  Tessie was very interested in what I was doing and hovered at my shoulder the entire time.  As I pulled a clump of grass from our flagstone walkway a worm wriggled out of the roots and fell into the dirt.  I quickly called Tes over to see it, not sure what her reaction would be. 

Tessie examined the worm, and to my heart’s delight,

Feeding the worm leaves.

promptly asked me if she could hold it.  I placed it in her hand, warning her to be gentle, and watched as she observed this new creature.  After a while she decided he was hungry and tried to feed him a leaf, completely ignoring my comments that worms don’t really eat willow leaves.  She placed him carefully back in the dirt and said goodbye, explaining to me that he was going back to his home. 

We found several more worms and one rolly-polly.  Tessie held each of them, talking to them the whole time.  I was delighted that my little girl, who doesn’t leave the house without a proper princess dress, was perfectly happy with a slimy worm crawling around in her palm.  Her interaction with the “garden world” was beautiful and, I hope, not a one time occurrence.

Neighborly Kindness

My moment today is centered on the kindness of others.  People show each other kindnesses every day and, no matter how small, these should not be overlooked as true moments of beauty.  I try to teach my children kindness by example and today I was shown a wonderful example that I would like to share with you.

For the last two days my family and I have been out of town.  Our neighbors were kind enough to look after our house, our dog and our chickens.  I must say that we really lucked out when it comes to the family next door.  We are quickly becoming great friends as are our children, a combination that I find rare and should be highly coveted.  I had complete trust leaving my home in their good keeping and was able to enjoy my time away without worry.

Before we left I showed my neighbor the newly constructed chicken run.  Because I had built it rather hastily there were still a few, rather lopsided, things to work out but I planned on taking care of it upon my return.  This evening, after getting home and settled, I went out to check on my chickens.  I couldn’t help but notice that the gate seemed to close a lot better than when I had left.  After a closer inspection I saw that the frame had been straightened and the whole gate now hung flush within it.  I was immediately overcome with gratitude and awe at this amazing act of kindness.  Not only did our neighbors take care of our pets and home, they fixed my coop, made it safer and didn’t even bring attention to the act! 

This evening, when I called to thank her, my neighbor just brushed it off as not a big deal, no problem, just a small task.  I tried to convey to her how touched I was.  It is no small thing to take it upon yourself to help out a neighbor just out of the kindness of your heart.  I was, and am, filled with appreciation.  I consider myself lucky for many reasons, having thoughtful and kind neighbors is definitely one of them and is my something beautiful today.

Real Magic

Amazement

Two years ago our little family of three was getting ready to take a big trip to Denver to see the children’s mega-group The Wiggles.  Tessie was a year and a half and I was nearing my third trimester in my pregnancy with Christian.  We were so excited as the date drew nearer and then, four days before the concert our world fell apart.  Christian was born two days shy of his third trimester and needless to say, our plans to see the Wiggles were forgotten. 

So here we are, two years later, and once again we were getting ready for a Wiggles concert.  Nick and I may have been more excited than both kids, I will admit it.  We headed back into the city this evening with the kids to see the concert, Christian chanting “Wiggles, Wiggles!” in the back seat.  Tessie was talking about how excited she was to see the show and both kids were mentioning their favorite
songs.  We were quite sure they thought they were going to a movie.  Nick and I had been tickled for days, anticipating the surprise the kids were in for when
they saw the real Wiggles walk out on stage in front of them.

Dancing with Daddy

As we walked into the venue Tessie was practically vibrating with excitement as we handed over our tickets.  We made our way to our seats and got comfortable.  There was a big screen playing some Wiggles videos before the show.  Both kids got super excited and I think they thought this was it, a Wiggles movie. 

Suddenly the lights dimmed and people started to cheer.  Tessie looked confused and Christian appeared quite worried.  As the Wiggles walked on stage I watched my children’s eyes grow bigger and bigger with surprise and then smiles stretch across their faces.  They were exposed to real magic today.  Christian was rapt the entire show, dancing on my lap and singing along to all the songs.  Every once in a while he turned back to me and said “Wiggles mom!”  Tessie tuckered out about half way through but every once in a while got pulled back in when a familiar song was played.

Showing off her poster

Exhausted and ready for bed.

I couldn’t help thinking about where we were two years ago.  This boy dancing on my lap was close to not being with us at all.  To see him tonight, filled with wonder and joy, I was caught up in the fever of the moment.  I smiled all night long.  As the show came to a close I held Christian up and he waved at the stage and called out, “Bye-bye Wiggles.”  I held him close, grabbed Tessie’s hand and felt completely surrounded by beauty.

Under a Stormy Sky

The passing storm.

Today's moment of beauty was a no-brainer, but it was preceded by a lot of craziness. Let me start at the start. This morning I dropped the kids off at school then headed home to pack for our big trip to Albuquerque.  Nick and I were going to a concert, alone, and the kids would be with my parents.

Once I had the car loaded and Nick got home we rushed off to get the kids and headed south.  Pick up went smoothly and the kids fell asleep before to long, as did Nick, and we were on our way. Shortly before arriving at my parents house the trouble began. Tessie awoke to throw a giant fit and nothing we said could end the tears. We pulled into my parents drive with white knuckles. After getting the kids settled in we headed into the city for our big night out. Not long after merging onto the freeway we were caught in a torrential downpour. Luckily, Nick was at the wheel and I could just watch through one squinted eye. After almost being rear-ended, I'm talking sliding cars, we made it off the freeway. The rain was coming down so hard that the roads were rivers and we could barely find our hotel. We finally made it, checked in and headed upstairs to our room. What happened next? The elevator shorted out. We got stuck, really stuck, in an elevator.  For ten minutes we sat in the elevator with a girl from Gallup, New Mexico, while we waited for help to come. Oh, and the fan was broken.

Happily awaiting the show.

The stage.

They finally got the door open and we headed up to our room. Because of the storm, the shuttle we had been promised to the concert was running an hour behind. We decided to drive and made it to the venue without incident. We headed in to have a romantic dinner at the fancy casino restaurant only to discover there was a thirty minute wait. With only thirty minutes until the concert we didn't want to chance it do we headed to the buffet. After a slightly leas fancy, but yummy and filling dinner none-the-less, we headed out to the amphitheater.

While waiting for Big Head Todd to come on stage I looked at Nick and around at the beautiful post-storm New Mexico sky.  Although every child that walked by, hand-in-hand with their mom or dad, tugged at my heart a little, I was happy to be out with Nick, just the two of us.  After a chaotic day, to say the least, here I was with my husband, about to watch one of our favorite bands. And it wasn't hard to see the beauty at all.