"Honey, you’re not missing a whole lot." Part of me wants my husband to believe that and part of me wants ME to believe that. But 2 things happened, one last night and one this morning, that made reality hit hard and I thought, Man, Joe is missing this.
Last night, when we were winding down for bed, Deivy and Justin ran into my room and Deivy yelled, “Mom! Mom! You gotta see this!” And I was like, “What is it?” Then Justin did the single funniest thing I think I’ve ever seen any of our kids do. Especially at his age, with his background of sort of being slow to communicate. It just made it so funny because it was so unexpected!
Justin was just looking normal, looking at me with his big, heart-shaped, solemn face. The only way I could tell that something was coming was by looking at his soft brown eyes: they sparkled with excitement and were slightly creased at the edges with the hint of a joke. He waited patiently for his cue from Deivy.
With a nod from Deivy to “Go ahead!” Justin threw his hands up in the air, stuck his tongue out, practically down to his chin, and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. I laughed and clapped for joy that my little 2-year-old was finally coming out of his shell. He was purposely trying to be funny, and achieving the right effect!
Then this morning I was helping Justin get dressed. He stepped into his shorts and I pulled them up to his waist—-maybe a little too high. He thought that was funny and pulled them up to his chest and laughed and laughed. I yelled for the kids to all come and see him. We all had a good laugh.
Two good laughs. Because of Justin, Joe---your 2-year-old-but-not-missing-much little boy. But don't worry. We'll remember and tell you when you call.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Every Day, Actually
I made it to Saver’s, finally, today. Second-hand store shopping is much more my style than mall shopping: it’s one store where you’ll find all the clothes you need for your family at a fraction of the mall prices. So, dragging in my five children and two bags full of unwanted items (but “someone else’s treasure”) in order to get my 20% off discount, I entered the store full of hopes of fun shopping times and finding good deals.
After about an hour of digging through clothes and shoes, we eventually decided to call it quits and headed for the dressing rooms. As soon as we got there a lady exclaimed rather loudly, “Do you have 5 children?!” She apparently was waiting as her daughter tried on clothes.
I let out a sigh-laugh and replied, “Yep!” with a slight smile. Great! I thought. She must have seen how wild my kids were behaving as we meandered our way through the store. Had she seen them playing with nearly every single toy in the toy aisle? Or pick out “pretty” shoes for me in the shoe aisles? Was it her that stopped short as my 2-year-old blindly dashed out in front of her? Perhaps she saw how my children loved to climb underneath and through the clothes on the racks. Did she see them chasing and fighting and getting mad at each other? Or even worse--did she hear me scold them to stop being so loud?
“Well,” the woman was saying as my mind raced through the events of the last hour, “God must have blessed you with more patience than the rest of us.”
In one second all of my “oh no’s” turned into a melted mush as I felt my cheeks get warm—partly from the compliment, and partly from not feeling so patient. “Actually,” I said quietly, “I’m still praying for that one,” and gave her a quick, sincere smile. Every day, actually.
After about an hour of digging through clothes and shoes, we eventually decided to call it quits and headed for the dressing rooms. As soon as we got there a lady exclaimed rather loudly, “Do you have 5 children?!” She apparently was waiting as her daughter tried on clothes.
I let out a sigh-laugh and replied, “Yep!” with a slight smile. Great! I thought. She must have seen how wild my kids were behaving as we meandered our way through the store. Had she seen them playing with nearly every single toy in the toy aisle? Or pick out “pretty” shoes for me in the shoe aisles? Was it her that stopped short as my 2-year-old blindly dashed out in front of her? Perhaps she saw how my children loved to climb underneath and through the clothes on the racks. Did she see them chasing and fighting and getting mad at each other? Or even worse--did she hear me scold them to stop being so loud?
“Well,” the woman was saying as my mind raced through the events of the last hour, “God must have blessed you with more patience than the rest of us.”
In one second all of my “oh no’s” turned into a melted mush as I felt my cheeks get warm—partly from the compliment, and partly from not feeling so patient. “Actually,” I said quietly, “I’m still praying for that one,” and gave her a quick, sincere smile. Every day, actually.
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