"Tea For Two"
Wow! It has been a while hasn't it? I've tried to find time to write sooner, but life has been rather nutty. After my last post, the next big event was my daughter's Christening. After that it was runny noses, sneezing and coughing, all four of us, for WEEKS on end. It got to be so bad that people started thinking I actually worked at my local pharmacy. I swear, if I wore white scrubs, my doctor would think I worked for him, too. Heck, after my last visit I had to stop myself from demanding my paycheck.
Well, goodbye sick days, hello spring! Thank God!
Annaliese and Marcus are doing very well. Annaliese still doesn't walk yet, but she's getting very close. She crawls up the stairs (mostly because of her Daddy's prodding), she cruises very well and sometimes, she almost looks like she's going to take a step. Then she thinks better about it and crawls instead.
Part of me thinks that she's just scared. Possibly. But I know she's smart and probably figured out that once she starts walking, Mommy won't be carrying her places anymore. Hmmm. Annaliese's favorite pastime is to cling. So I've been encouraging her and showing her how to follow after her brother, holding her under her arms and watching her little feet go. Chasing her brother around is becoming a new pastime (much to her brother's dismay).
I sort of share her fear about walking. I also know that when she starts, there's no turning back. She'll begin to go off on her own, exploring her world from a new viewpoint. It will be a wonderful sight to behold, but one that I am ashamed to say, I dread. My little Clingasaurus is not the only one that wants to cling. I want to cling to her, too. I see her almost take a step and out loud I say, "Yes! There you go!" and inside I say, "Look, there she goes...".
This is the part of parenting that doesn't hit you until you become a parent. You teach and show and train and encourage your children so they can grow and be able to stand on their own two feet...without you. Even though it hurts, you have to let go and let them become. This lesson about parenting only hits home after you've fallen deeply in love with two little feet, two chubby hands and an angelic face staring up at you adoringly.
One morning, while drinking my coffee and checking my e-mail, I heard Annaliese cackling. If you've never heard or seen her cackle before, it is something to behold. Her face scrunches up, little button nose all wrinkled and she laughs this deep, bass, cigar-smoker laugh. Needless to say, when she laughs, we ALL laugh.
I turned to see what was transpiring to set her off. What I found was too precious for words. Brother and sister, sitting across from one another, Stride-Rite to Stride-Rite. My son has a pot on his head from the little kitchen that's in their playroom. My daughter obviously thinks this is very clever and very funny. She's laughing, and he's smiling at her. He takes the pot off his head. She stops laughing. He puts it back on, she begins cackling again. Off. On. Off. On.
At some point I forgot all about my e-mails and began laughing as well, enchanted by the scene that was playing out in our family room. There was no time to get a camera, I didn't want to miss a second of it. It went on for at least five minutes. At the end, the cackles died down a bit and the pot was tossed on the floor in favor of a Sesame Street press and pop which both tried to play with at the same time.
Amid the yells of my son yanking his toy back from his sister and her's of indignation to keep said toy, the scene that had happened moments before played out in my mind. I could almost see a similar scene six years into the future, maybe making each other laugh as they talk about school or a soccer game, perhaps in high-school as they talk about proms and dates or maybe even beyond that, as they watch their own children play with one another at a family event.
The reverie takes just a moment, but the feeling it leaves me with is bittersweet. No parent wants to think about when their children get older, but we all strive to do our best to prepare our children for it. For life. These moments that they share now are forming a life-long bond that I hope will always be cherished by both of them.
One day, when the family room has been cleared if it's toys, when the pitter-patter has stopped and our household clutter is devoid of play keys, pacifiers and Cheerio containers, I will recall a sweet little boy, entertaining his sister, with a pot on his head, her infectious laughter and their little, smiling faces. I'm sure then, just like now, even as my eyes fill with tears, my heart will be filled with gratitude.
Life, indeed, is made up of tiny moments like these.
May I always remember to savor them.
- The Mamasaurus
