* Yesterday I told the kids to each put a tupperware container of water on the back porch. This morning when they got up, both were frozen solid. This amazed them. Linden actually said, "Mama, it's AMAZING! I made ICE!" The ironic part being, they come from a place with much colder winters than we have. But I guess they themselves have never MADE ICE before.
*The kids wanting to hug me goodbye when they dropped me off to have coffee with a friend. They both leaned into me for a minute.
*Having coffee with a friend. How often do I get to do that? I think this is the third such event in almost seven months.
*Hearing that a mutual friend has gotten engaged to her girlfriend. They're hoping that by the time they get married, it will be legal in the whole country. So am I. If not, we are conveniently located across the river from a state where it's already legal.
*When the kids and The Winemaker came to pick me back up from my coffee date, he sat down to chat with my friend too. Oak was
*Then we went to family swim. But we were early, so we played a game where we took turns kicking a ball at a wall. This was great on so many levels--the family play, the turn taking, and the awesomeness of The Winemaker having packed a red rubber ball in the trunk in case of emergency.
*Family swim. Great fun.
*I dove off the diving board. I haven't done that in years. All I can do is your basic dive, and it was a pretty low diving board, but it was still a great rush.
*The Winemaker also dove a few times. I missed one of his dives, and he was disappointed, so I promised to watch the next one. He did a somersault dive. Can I just say that when a 41 year old man who's been married for 11 years shows off to impress his wife, it's about the most charming thing in the world?
*I carmelized onions. Only I forgot I was doing it, and let the oil smoke away on the stove until my husband called me in to ask what I was planning. What's good here? He totally didn't make fun of OR get exasperated with me. And then I refocused and actually carmelized the onions, which is always a good thing.
*I also made cookies. I love baking. I'd imagined that baking for and with my kids would be one good Mom thing that would come easily to me. My kids like sweets, but 9 times out of 10 prefer ice cream or cheap candy to baked goods. So I don't bake all that much after all. But I did tonight, and the kids had ice cream for dessert, and I'm about to bust with a belly full of chocolate chip cookies.
*Story time was good tonight. Good choices all around. We started reading to them as soon as they joined our household last summer, using nearly wordless books (Goodnight Gorilla), and simple picture books that I'd translate really badly. It was kind of a bonding thing in itself, trying to guess what I was trying to say, and tell me how to say it more correctly. We branched into slightly more complex stories that I'd tell in a mishmash of their language and English. It was August when I first read "Blueberries for Sal" to them that way, and the next day, I heard Oak say, "Kerplink, kerplank!" when he heard something hitting a tin cup. Now we read to them in English, and we mix "early reader" type books with more complex picture books. Over winter break I tested out a chapter each from Little House in the Big Woods; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; and House at Pooh Corner. They stuck with me, but kept trying to turn the page early to find pictures, and weren't interested in going back to them. But then Oak came home with a Magic Treehouse book, and we read it over four evenings, and it kept their interest. I had my first "Please, one more chapter!" moment. Now we're reading a Captain Underpants book, and it's the same way. I think I'll have to wait a little longer for the more complex (and less illustrated) books, but we're making progress.
*This is part of the previous point, but after I read Oak's two chapters of Capt. UP and his picture book, and Linden's three picture books, I read three "bedtime" books I'd chosen, and they both leaned sleepily into me as I read, sagging more deeply, struggling to keep their eyes open enough to see the sweet pictures of sleepy lambs and calves...
*It was sunny today. I live in the Pacific NW, so sun in winter is always a mood lifter.
Our therapist is fond of telling us that the fun part comes after the kids are raised. Today wasn't perfect--Oak and I butted heads several times, and I didn't respond with zen calm, we let them play too many computer games so we could get some wine bottled, my friend was clearly horrified when we assigned Oak pushups for being defiant--but most of the day was a lot of fun. I had fun with my kids, I had fun without my kids, I shared a few fun moments with my husband. So there, therapist. Or maybe that's her goal--to get me to look at the fun times as a wonderful treat, instead of something I'm entitled to.
I need to write a post like this...cheesy as it sounds, I think it is important to acknowledge all the things that went right in a day, because usually I sit around and focus in on the things I think I did poorly. When I was in the throes of infertility I remember hearing a friend who was a parent of three say that there are a million ways to fail as a parent every day. Of course I hated her for saying it because she got to be a parent. But now I get it. And while it's true, there are also a lot of opportunities to get it right and those are 'wonderful treats' as you said.
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