Watermelon, Taco Bell, and a Frog on the Toilet

It occurred to me today while shopping at Publix, where shopping truly is a pleasure.  For you out-of-Floridians, that's their slogan.  Where else can you take your kids to pick up a free prescription for antibiotics, get a free balloon, and a free cookie all while they ride around in a two-seater car cart?  Anyway, it occurred to me while shopping that I never used to buy watermelon before I had kids.  I never considered buying watermelon.  It's way too much trouble to lug that giant fruit into the cart to begin with.  Then cutting it up is a huge undertaking.  It's messy to eat.  And the seeds.  Oh, the seeds!  But today, while carting around Celia and Mikey, I spotted a huge crate of giant watermelons, and for a moment, I thought, "Man, the kids would LOVE to get one of those!"  OK, I admit that today wasn't the day to get one, but the fact that I'd even consider it just shows that life is way different with kids.

I want them to experience new things all the time.  And everything is so new and fascinating to them.  Their impressions of every single little thing in the world is influenced by the way I present it to them for the first time.  This fact has made me much more aware of my own attitude toward everything from frogs and bugs to vegetables and swimming pools.

I'm a total chicken when it comes to amphibious creatures who break an entering.  Froggies are not welcome in my home because they freak my freak.  Mike laughed at me the other day when I locked a frog in the bathroom for nine hours so that he could rescue it and send it packing.  He asked me what I was afraid of, and I told him what I tell him about frogs, lizards, mice, and any other tiny critter.  "I'm afraid it'll jump in my bra."  It's so utterly and ridiculous a fear that it makes him laugh, and then he just takes care of the problem. Yes, that means he had to leave work once to retrieve a dead mouse in a mouse trap much to the entertainment of his fellow attorneys.  I don't care who laughs at me.  One day, a roach is going to leap down Mike's shirt, and he's going to admit that I was right all along.  But when my kids are around, I try to fake it.  When Celia was tiny, there were all of these tiny baby frogs that would hang out on her little sliding board in the back yard.  They were so tiny, I'm sure at least fifty could have fit into my bra easily. Needless to say, I wasn't so thrilled to be so close to them.  But, I didn't want Celia to worry.  After all, she wouldn't be wearing a bra for some time, right?  So, I took some deep breaths and faked it. "Look how cute the froggies are!  Oh, they're babies.  I wonder if they're looking for their mama."  And Celia was delighted by them.  Clearly I failed her on the bug front, since she refuses to eat in a restaurant if she's seen the tiniest gnat near her food.  She'll politely ask the waitress for a To-Go box and wait til she gets home.

I've digressed completely and utterly from my original point though.  Noticing and enjoying new and different things now that I have kids is just such a joy.  We literally stop and smell flowers.  No parking lot puddle is safe with my kiddos.  Making ice cream is way too much trouble, unless you have kids who just might enjoy learning about the process...or a husband who would.  We once stopped during a walk to water a worm who looked too dry.  You do not go to the mall without a load of pennies to throw in the fountain.  When going through a drive-thru, we have to roll down their window too so that they can introduce themselves and tell their ages to the attendant.

I'm learning as we go that we slow down and make time to do all of these things.  That might mean that a trip to a store to get two things lasts an hour, but there are so many new things to see, taste, smell, hear, and touch.  Every single moment of the day is full of learning and doing.  Man, those kids can suck a day dry...in a good way.  I mean they absolutely pay attention to things that are really pretty inane.  I mean who gets worked up over taking the overpass?  MY KIDS!  "Mommy, it's the flyover!  Oh, thank you for taking us over the flyover!  We can see everything from up here!  Look!  It's Taco Bell!"  While their daddy does enjoy a cheesey gordita crunch (with extra sauce), it cracks me up that the sight of Taco Bell could thrill them so.  They've never been to Taco Bell.  They don't like tacos when I serve them.  But seeing it from up so high is a complete and total thrill.  And I love that.  I used to fake enthusiasm for these things, but slowly, as I see things through their eyes, my feigned excitement is becoming more genuine.  You know what?  Seeing Taco Bell from way up high is pretty darn cool!  And even that frog (that Mikey swears broke the toilet...the toilet broke in an unrelated incident) was kind of cute in his own way.  Viewing the world from a preschooler's vantage point isn't all butts and knees.  It's pretty awesome and full of fresh, new thrills.  Maybe this mama will even get over her fear of critters.  Or maybe I'll just finally get that watermelon.

Savoring My Queen Bee Status Just a Little Bit Longer

Celia drew this picture of herself and me today. I'm the one with what looks like a halo on my head.  It's actually my hair band, she told me.  If you've seen me in the past few years (or knew me in high school when I sported the same look), you'll know that until my recent haircut, I wore a hair band every day to keep that mane out of my face.  I don't know how other long-haired women do it who seem to always be facing the wind.  I don't see them in the parking lot of Target, holding the hands of two toddlers, a diaper bag, a purse, and pushing a stroller, all the while, looking like a stunt double for Cousin It.  But I digress.  That is me and my hair band and I LOVE this picture.  I love it not just because these are some of Celia's first drawings of people and that they actually have bodies and not just floating heads with limbs stuck out of the sides.  I love it not just because of the fact that she included the details of her ubiquitous bow and my hair band.  I love it because it's a picture of just us two.  And no offense at all to daddy who asked her to include him in the drawing, but it's special because it's just us girls.  And in her mind, Mommy totally rocks.  Because right now Celia is four.  And I know that life will change.  I taught middle school for eight years.  I know what's coming.  I'm totally savoring the fact that for now, both she and Mikey want ME to hold their hands while we shop.  They want ME to sit on their bed and hold them while we pray at bedtime.  They call for MOMMY in the middle of the night when they're sick, need more water, need their noses wiped, need their tushes wiped, need me to wipe tears away and (as Mikey puts it) "feel me better."  I'm truly soaking up the moments because I know that soon enough, Mommy will no longer be anything close to cool.  But I also know (I taught middle school for eight years, remember?) that I'm going to continue to be there for all the times they need me to "feel them better" just in new and different ways.  I remember what my dear friend Jane's mom used to tell us.  I became friends with Jane in the eighth grade, so Mrs. Bible got to know me during my most heinous years, I'm sure.  She was a wise woman.  One of my favorite of her quotes is, "Nothing goes right when your underwear's too tight."  All kidding aside, I really did learn much from her.  I remember she told us that she truly enjoyed every age and stage that her girls went through.  That each new era brought new joys and gifts. I hold onto that as I see these sweet preschool years going way too quickly by.  I am savoring every hand hold for now, but I embrace the sweetness that the future years will bring as well.  And when Celia is rolling her eyes at me as I try to take her picture on the first day of eighth grade, you can bet I'll be clutching that picture that she drew of the two of us today.