'Cause I might have done just that. But don't judge me--you would have done the same if you'd seen that the winter blizzard predicted to bring 10" of snow did just that! And i hate driving in the snow. Reid thinks I'm a wimp, and he's totally right. But wimp or not--my prayer was answered!! And I'm so glad it was!
Reid had the idea that since we were all prettied up, we should have a little "church meeting" here at home. I anticipated the usual whining and complaining anytime one of us suggests something awesome. But the girls surprised me. They each gladly chose a lesson to teach to the family.
Abby went first. She loves this sort of stuff. She's confident, fearless and loves attention. She's the first to raise her hand in any classroom setting. She thrives on checklists, order, and schedules. And although she also thrives on being the family antagonist, she loved this idea so much she just went along with it. I'm so glad that in this moment she chose to be agreeable. She taught us about faith and how it's like a seed--dependent on external forces to reach its potential (those might have not been her exact words). She's a good little teacher.
Grace, who followed, kept her eyes glued to the book the entire time. She was intimidated by an audience made up entirely of her own immediate family members. This is the girl who came home from school today and told me that she'd been offered the lead role in her class play--The Tortoise and the Hare. But my sweet girl turned it down. She said she'd rather be a tree than a tortoise--it's more "her." Grace is actually quite confident of herself, but she truly dislikes all attention (except the kind she frequently elicits from her youngest sister--she loves Eliza's
infuriated or
insulted attention...but that's another story). Grace also earned the elite privilege of dining with the school principal, but got shy at the last minute and backed out. All of this nervousness and distaste for the lime-light is quite foreign to me, so I consult Reid on these issues. She is just like he was as a child. I find comfort in this, seeing what a decent person he turned out to be.
Eliza decided last minute that she didn't want a turn. Reid said he'd help her. It turned into Reid whispering the words in Eliza's ears, and her spitting those same words out in my least favorite language--Baby Talk. I get the feeling that no one's approval means more to this girl than her very own sisters'. She doesn't do baby talk when it's just me and her. She doesn't do it with James. She mostly uses it as some proverbial shield when the fear of rejection from her two idols squeezes it out of her. I worry about her ability to gain self-confidence, with sisters who are happy to point out how much older and wiser they are then her....which is part of why I pour out buckets of praise on this girl as often as I can Though a million gallons of praise from me isn't worth a teacup from her big sisters. Sigh.
James just did his usual cute things, including walking in circles with an over-sized hat on his head, falling down, giggling, then doing it all over and over again. . . until he found his crack-laced blankie. I swear, that kid could be playing with the Parents Choice #1 toy of the year, but if his skin so much as
grazes the silk edge of his blankie, that toy might as well be a tax report to this silk-addict. And he's no respecter of blankets. In public places, he outright steals other babies' blankets and lays down with them, while that baby screams to their mommy about the big 20-month old baby bully who stole their silkie!! True story! Man, i let that kid do basically whatever he wants. It's gonna be a problem some day, isn't it...
After Reid and I shared a few thoughts, we ended with a very
dancey version of Give Said the Little Stream.
Watching my kids spin around while my husband played his daughter's size 0 guitar, I had one of those "
this is the life that I always dreamed of" moments. I love those moments. They've been abundant the past year or two. We are in a really great place. Our kids are all young, though not too young. They're all home a lot, but thankfully not all day. They play well, they depend on each other for a good night's sleep, they gang up on Reid and I in sweet, "I scream, you scream, we all cream for ice cream" kind of ways. They (sometimes) let us sleep in on Saturday mornings (should I admit publicly that Grace gets her brother out of his crib and feeds him cereal?!?) They're dependent on us, but not too dependent. And they believe that Reid and I are cool parents, full of all the answers, and worthy of their naive adoration.
This has got to be as good as it gets!!!
And if it gets any better, don't tell me! Knowing me, I'd wish the clock to move faster to a supposed "better" time (which i did plenty of when they were all knee-biters) and I'd miss out on the right now! And I don't
want to miss a single moment of right now. Because I know that sooner than I believe, I'm
gonna miss every single moment of right now.
