Blessed

Some days with a willful three year old are really difficult. Some are tiring. Some are frustrating. Most are funny. All are joyful.

There are some days when all I think about on my long drive home (seriously, 60 minutes to go 12 miles is ridiculous!) from a busy day at the office is how I am drained. I feel too old to be the mom of an excessively active toddler. I feel like, more than anything, I’d like to walk into my nice cool house and put my feet up and drink a glass of wine. Let someone else handle dinner, bathing, bedtime while I lounge.

And then I open the door  to my grinning whirling dervish, who might be so excited I’m home or, more often than not lately, might say, “I wanna see Daddy” as soon as I walk in the door (what a homecoming) and suddenly my energy is renewed. I put the laptop bag and blackberry aside (“bye-bye mommy work peeker”, as Charlie likes to say when he wants me to leave the work behind) and soak up all the smiles and giggles and funny things my kid is doing and saying right now.

Man, oh man, has this kid learned how to throw a fit. He’s dramatic as the day is long – his face gets red and he yells and even manages to bring forth a real tear now and then. The other night, I was ignoring him (can’t remember what he was doing that I didn’t want him to be doing, but he was upset) while he was doing his best to bring forth some tears, and he got right in my face and said, “Charwee, he’s a cryin’”   So funny.

Tonight we were outside – he was driving his car on the driveway while I was watering the plants, and I playfully splashed him with the hose. He got very serious and said, “No teasin’, mommy”  And then when I was rolling the hose up, he said, “Bye-bye hose, no more teasin’ Charwee”. 

The talking this kid is doing is amazing. The things he remembers shock me. He’s so smart!  And so happy.  The tiny things that excite him remind me I should find more joy in everyday things. 

For example, we were driving to the dealership tonight to drop my car off for routine service. Oh, and for body work, since I scraped the side of the car in the parking garage tonight. Wasn’t that nice of me, to conveniently do such a stupid thing the day before I already had a service scheduled!  Anyway, we were taking a back road where they must have been doing some construction, because they had those little orange flags sticking up from all of the speed limit signs. Charlie decided they were birthday hats. He kept saying excitedly, “Birtday hat!  Anudder birtday hat! Anudder birtday hat!” When we finally turned off that road, he said, “Bye-bye birtday hats. That was fun, birtday hats. That was fun, mommy.” The kid takes joy in some orange flags on the side of the road. Sometimes I have to clench my teeth so I don’t just gobble him up!

Here he is after absconding with my hair straightener, which wasn’t being used, so it wasn’t hot. But he’s watched me use it enough times to know what it is, as evidenced in photo 2. As he was using it, he was saying “Charwee fix hair”. See what I mean??

Tomorrow our wonderful Miss Pamela and Charlie are hosting a fourth of July celebration at our house. How I hate that I will be at work and will miss it, but how I love that she has found him such a crew of buddies. I am off to decorate his flag cake, to remind him that even though I am not there, I have left behind my love in the form of cool whip icing with blueberry and strawberry stars and stripes!