Life's Little Joys

I woke up just dog tired Saturday. I'd been having insomnia bouts during the week and it all seemed to come crashing down on me Saturday morning. I love my boys and we yearned and prayed for those boys for years, a reality of which I have not lost sight. Still, overflowing thankfulness or no, when sleep deprived, the energy to keep up with those two very active boys can be lacking. And thus Saturday found me a wee bit grumpy.

You know what quells grumpy? Kid cuteness. Grumpy just cannot prevail in the face of kid cuteness. So I am posting this to capture these moments:

• I was in the (very messy) playroom with the boys and Micah came over to me with his etch-a -sketch and told me he had drawn exactly what we needed to clean up the room. There I beheld a robot vacuum. Micah excitedly pointed out the three wheels on his robot and showed me his two hands and explained that there were two more just like it on the other side. My favorite part? Micah explained that after vacuuming everything up, the robot would then "spit everything out just where it belongs." Upon learning I could not purchase such a robot anywhere, Micah then proceeded to cheerily pick up all his building blocks. Without even being asked.
• As if the robot vacuum were not enough, Micah then came back to me with the etch-a-sketch and he had designed a hidden picture search for me. Because his artistic phase has been abstract (but very intricate to my eye), imagine my surprise to see a very realistic toilet plunger hidden in and amongst other shapes. The cuteness of Micah copying the hidden picture searches he enjoys in his High Five magazines, and the surprise that he can draw such realistic objects, and the amusement that he chose a plunger of all things (and knows what a plunger does) all conspired to chase away any and all grouchiness.
• Tiras can give a big grin and laugh that is just infectious. But what I also love is his look of delight that is not interactive, but just Tiras caught up in the awe and enjoyment of a moment. I was holding him and putting lotion on his back and tummy and he was very interested in the lotion, so I put a tiny dollop on his hand and he gazed down at the lotion on his hand with such a pleased and interested smile. I love that look!
• Another grace note of the day was finding myself in the middle of a cross breeze. Nothing like a gentle lake breeze unexpectedly whispering a bit of cool into the day!

Happy moments. I may not be able to articulate them in a way that does them justice. But I hope they will trigger the memory for me down the road when my kidlets are no longer wee kidlets.