Skip to main content

A Moment...

We just had a first.

The girls had a bath tonight and after I towel them off I always put lotion on, especially rubbing it into their hands and faces which have such delicate skin. They have both loved this moment since the first time I did it months ago.

Today as I was finishing up Kate grabbed my hand and smiled at me and said, "Mama? Wotion? Me!" Meaning: lotion put on mama by me?

She slowly rubbed both her hands along my palm, then turned it over and rubbed the back. She parroted the way I say, "backs of hands, too," when I help them wash their hands by saying, "Back! Too!"

Then she gently rubbed lotion along each of my fingers. It actually felt like a tiny little massage. I was surprised by how gentle and thoughtful she was being. And all the while she was smiling up at me, really happy to do this.

When she finished I thanked her and she absolutely beamed with pride.

It was such a sweet moment. And so unexpected. I never imagined these girls would be ready to give little gifts of kindness already.

A true Mother's Day moment.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Flash Fiction - Guilt Free

And this one I wrote for the fun of it. It was delicious to wallow in such a world of self-indulgence I'll never know. This is flash fiction (less than 1,000 words). Guilt Free It was fudge sauce, thick and cold from the back of the fridge, dipped in gourmet raspberry jam—the kind from France with the understated label—straight onto a spoon and then suckled in my mouth, a frosty mug of milk tremoring faintly in my left hand, to be gulped in indelicate swaths allowing a dribble or two down my front, the first time I hit her. Not really hit. Shoved. A forceful push. A push that began with contact. The contact of my hand wedging so neatly between her small sharp shoulder blades, wedging in so that I almost could not retract myself from the catapulting force launching her into the tub. Not a hit—there was no smacking, cracking, sharp stinging rebound. No bruise. She’d laughed. She’d thought it was a game. Like when I clapped my hands together as she went up the stairs, cla...

So What About Mother's Day?

I was looking ahead on the calendar to our next visit and suddenly realized it fell during Mother's Day weekend. A flood of mixed emotions hit me immediately. Mother's Day is not a deeply important holiday to me. It's nice and all but I've never had super big emotions about it.  The girls can't know what it is yet and won't have any big feelings this year. But...years from now...will this be a uniquely difficult holiday?  So if no one cares right now can I just kinda slide this one under the rug and avoid all the drama? Please, please, please someone confirm this is a real option!?! Ugh, but what about the birth family. Is this a big deal for them? Are there major traditions? Will this be a minefield of potential hurt feelings? Is there a tactful way to call them up and say, so, on a scale of 1 to 10 how invested are you into making this a big rigamarole? While thinking this through I did some googling and found that the local zoo does a special Mother...

Birthday Party

Today was Kate's 2nd birthday party. We'd planned it long ago to be a chance for family who hadn't seen the girls in awhile to see them and also to meet us. During the trial some family members were there and tempers were running high. I began to regret getting them all together just two days later and considered cancelling the whole thing. On the drive there we strategized and had back-up plans including calling the police. Never in my life have I had to think this way. We left Gus and James at home just so they wouldn't have to witness anything...and Theo and I wouldn't have to think about getting them out of there quickly if it came to that. Only Seth came to take pictures. In the end everything was fine. The angry members did not come--proving yet again that they live for their own drama and self-absorption and cannot consider what the children may want or need.  We had maternal grandma (Laura) and her ex-boyfriend (Ken) there. Ken has been one of the mo...