A pretty great day...

Today with Aya

First thing this morning, I had her all gussied up in a cute pony tail and outfit. Wanted to go to the aquarium and see Karl for coffee. It's been a long week inside.

When I realized we were snowed in, we tried on her snowsuit and walked around in the snow for a bit. Then Luna disappeared and gave me a heart attack so I trudged all over the neighborhood with Aya looking for her.

Luna showed up on the doorstep when I got back.

We built stuff and played with puzzles. Then Aya poured her peaches on Luna's back. So I gave them both a spit shine clean up. Same with the floor.

Aya looked like an angel when I cuddled her to sleep (instead of fighting her to go back to sleep if I had tried to put her down) and I held her for forty five minutes. ♥️♥️

When she got up we ate lunch together... Until she threw her eggs at Luna the dog and Charlie the cat and they engaged in gladiator war.

She unloaded the dryer into Charlie's water bowl while I loaded the washer. So I redid the first load.

She took big gulps from my water bottle and spit them all over a horrified sleeping cat. He was so shocked he got doused three times by the time he woke up enough to move.

When putting fresh diapers in the bath room, she hurried and shoved three in the toilet.

I took her by the shoulders and said 'NO. DO NOT PUT DIAPERS IN THE TOILET.'

She studied me seriously, then patted my face gently, leaned in, kissed me on the lips and said "Hi Mommy"

This is exactly my response to her when she has an angry moment.

So... I started laughing and hugged her...

I keep thinking that from her point of view this was a pretty great day.  Snow, a walk in more snow with Mom carrying her and helping yell 'Nnnooonnnnaaaaaa!!'. Then a nap cuddled by Mom, snacks and loads of play time.

Life is always about perspective. ♥️

Life's Distractions

What you cannot do, you must do - Thoughts my 2am

Knitting Needle Engraved Necklace

Forged by Fire

I have a different relationship with three in the morning these days.  I see it now, not as the haunting, the tormentor.

Three in the morning is the stolen hour. The sacred hour.  A time of fire that has forged me into someone new.

How many times have I rocked this beautiful child at three am? Tonight she lays relieved and relaxed in my arms,  breathing easily, safely in my arms at three am.  I think about three mornings when her tummy was tight with bubbles and half her present length.  I remember her unfocused eyes, startled and lonely.

Tonight, the moment I scooped her up, she became peaceful, cuddled in my lap.

It is not his job to believe in me.  It's isn't anyone's really.  I alone hold that responsibility.

Isn't that beautiful, powerful?  My thoughts have been jumbled up for months, years, a paraglider's lines caught in the weeds on a steep hill.... and this aha moment tonight laid them out straight, clean and free.

Here by the light of the humidifier, smudged by my palm and clearer than anything I have ever written before.

Take these words as yours.

Fighting Fish (Original Art)

'Fighting Fish'

18" x 14" on a 12" x 24"

Her (Original Art)

Her

24" x 24" x 1.5"