Capturing Little-ness

The tiny egg shaped bulge in his shirt tells me he's up to something. My little boy approaches me slowly, his hands gently rubbing the hidden lump next to his belly.

I tap the object. "What is that? I ask.

He looks up. "It's my egg, Mommy. I'm trying to make it hatch."

He carefully exposes a little of his precious baby from under his shirt and then tucks it back in and continues caressing the cold, hard shell, obviously acquired from the fridge.

"Babe, this egg needs a daddy in order to hatch," I run my fingers through his sandy brown hair and he looks up at me with questioning, hazel eyes.

Then he lights up. "I can be it's daddy!" And he dashes off, baby twisted inside fabric, love warming it.

 

He must have given up because lunch comes and goes and I never see or hear about his tiny adopted one again. I miss my opportunity to teach about fertilization but I chalk up the absence of the egg to more of a lesson in patience, for the moment.

I capture my boy's little-ness with my words, and keep it wrapped in a special spot on this blog. My babies, growing, changing, and learning, are rarely tickling my heart with their naive and hilarious misunderstandings of life these days. Mostly, they are astounding me with their knowledge of the world and their intelligent thoughts. I miss my little ones but I'm finding lovely tidbits of those wise and wonderful big-kid moments to keep tucked away here too. Gifts--all of them.

 

Gratitude:

 

1582. growing, changing and becoming big

1583. innocent, naïve, childish little-ness

1584. beginning gratitude journals with the kids and the stuff they praise for.... wow!

1585. beautiful, glorious, warm sunshine streaming through my window--truly the real first day of spring :)

1586. the return of the robins and how they love to nest under our deck each year

1587. comfort through my Bible reading this morning (furious underlining!)

1588. her playing of "River Flows In You" and how it's becoming fluent

1589. new friends (can we still be making them at this age? yes!)

1590. dear, old friend (and her little girl) --how her return has graced my life

1591. neat and messy hair buns, braided, twisted or wrapped--thankful for girls!

1592. the way she picked up lyrical dance this year and how her solo nearly brought me to tears