My Girl

Yesterday, Kaela and Ben were wild. Crazy. The kind of day when I threaten to call 1-800-GYPSY2U to come pick them up and allow them to earn their keep by shoveling elephant poo and catching fleas to train from the junkyard dogs at the gypsy circus. That's what I tell them, anyway. When I threaten to call the gypsies, they know that that's my last joke before the real trouble begins for them. When Eric got home last night, I left them with him so I could run errands and clear my head a bit, and they had him threatening to tie them up in the closet within a matter of minutes.
It was one of those days.

We've been babysitting this week, which only heightened the energy in the house. One of the families had sick children.

This morning, I woke up and could barely move. I don't remember when I've been so sick. Eric went on to work, since the children who were sick got over the fever and worst of it within 8 hours or so, and left me to sleep it off.
With Kaela and Ben here.

Within an hour or so, Kaela came and rubbed my leg. "Mommy, would you like me to fix you some toast? That will be good for your tummy. We have some plain yogurt, too, if you want me to put it on there for you."

"Honey," I told her, "I'm about to get up and fix you guys some cereal, then I'm going to need to go back to bed. You can stay right here in the playroom, right?"

"Let me," she said. "I know how to fix toast, cereal, and yogurt. We have some strawberries, too." And she DID. When I came into the kitchen to check on her, she had garnished the plates with strawberries, cleaned up the kitchen after herself, and fed Ben, too.

This is how our entire day went. Friends offered to come get them so that I could sleep, but Kaela refused to leave me. She brought me TUMS, decorating magazines, the book I'm reading, Adopted for Life, and plain yogurt. She fed Ben lunch, and picked up after herself. All day. And as she would come and go from my room, she would pat my leg and say, "Mommy, I'm right here if you need anything."

She looked, for this day, at least, like a young lady. A compassionate young lady. I don't know when I've been so proud of her.

When Eric got home tonight, I got up for about two hours and watched Kaela and Ben while they swam. During that time, life went back to normal and I watched my little lady open her mouth wide to scrape Ben with her teeth, then debate whether or not that actually counts as biting....to which he responded by pouring an egg-sized amount of sunscreen in her hair.
Back to the time outs, apologies, and separate corners of the room.

They're growing so quickly, though. My children. This glimpse of a time not too far off makes me want to pause them right where they are now and not let this time pass unnoticed or unappreciated.
I need to hold off on calling that gypsy circus for awhile.