November 18, 2008

Today marks the first day the "damn, its cold outside season" here. For me, this is marked by it being now the season to don tights under my jeans. For the kids, the appeal of playing outside has just been utterly deflated. Poor Liam, Mr. "I can hear mommy whisper the word 'outside' from across the room" was utterly heartbroken after we took a quick 10 minute walk to the grocery store and back. Being a toddler, he refused to wear mittens and a hat and surprisingly kept on refusing the blanket I tried to wrap around him while he was in the stroller. He seemed subdued when we arrived at the grocery store, but perked up when Finn convinced me that cookies from the bakery were needed for snacks on the way home. When we finally got home, poor Liam's little nose and fingers were red and he was in tears as I let him out the stroller---I could see the anguish in his face---this is the time when he normally makes a run for it down the sidewalk away from the house, with a sly, catch me if you can glance behind to mommy as he gets further away---but instead he looked forlornly back at me and trudged up the front steps. Inside the house, he broke down and bawled and I comforted him knowing that he must have felt so betrayed by his great buddy "the outside" to have it turn so cold he no longer wanted to be there.

November 8, 2008

Finn asked me to tell him a bedtime story tonight---one with super heroes. This was the first time he ever asked for a story---I had always planned to start telling him stories but had not started it yet, but I was touched that he asked for one. I remember when my sister Tara was little how I would tell her bedtime stories. I was quite adept at telling some elaborate tales---often involving princesses, fairies and pirates. So I had to pause for a moment when Finn asked for a story involving superheroes----I could not exactly pull from my childhood experiences (well we did play Isis when I was about ten). In my first bedtime story to my son I had him, brother Liam and mommy caught in a neverending rain storm at the park, when Superman arrives to let us know that something is gone wrong and it will never stop raining without our help. So Superman made Finn Super Finn, Liam Super Baby and mommy Wonderwoman and fly to an island where we found a treasure map, crossed a river, climbed a mountain, found the X, and traded the treasure to the pirate for their promise to make it stop raining. Then we all joined Batman and Robin to help Santa Claus deliver toys through a very heavy snowstorm. Finn asked for another story but as I started to tell it I realized he had fallen asleep---but that's what bedtime stories are for--I still love reading before I go to sleep--to just be able to relax and unwind and go somewhere else in mind before sleep descends and if I put the book down and my mind races to the present, the problems, and the stressers of the day, i try to calm myself by dreaming awake as much as I can in hopes those dreams permeate my consciousness as I drift to sleep and leave me with memories of sweet dreams at night.