For one reason, or another...the relaxation that the weekend brings began on Thursday. The babe and I took one of our long, lost YES walks. Oh, how we have missed those.
The tradition of the YES walk was started last year. The other kids were at school and it was just puddin and I at home during the days. I started realizing that Annslee heard the word NO...way more than she heard the word YES. And that bothered me. So...we started the YES walk. We would head outside...where the girl has always been the happiest...and I would follow her anywhere she wanted to go.
My goal was to get down in her, little world and to see things through her, sparking eyes and to experience things in her, magical way. Often times we would meander down the driveway, at her slow pace...all the while stopping to talk to the morning doves, taking care of their babies in their nest; touching the leaves of the neighbor's palms lining the driveway; stopping everything to listen to a distant dog bark a hello; or bending down to pick up fallen azalea flowers off of the grass. I never got on my phone. I never hurried her along. I never told her not to touch something. And I never acted like I was bored. Because the truth is...I never was. I loved our magical adventures down our driveway...and I loved watching my baby girl learn and discover and wonder.
She stumbled and fell one time. She skinned her knee and experienced her first owie. She didn't cry. She just kept looking at it...as if making sure it was still there. After all...it was a battle wound from a YES walk. Something to wear with honor and pride.
her very first owie - spring 2011
She has become a little more adventurous on our walks. Instead of being content looking at stuff...she wants to DO stuff.
She wants to do stuff that means I can't just walk along behind her...bending down to look at something when she bends down. Nope...I have to DO stuff too. Like do that push thing on the back of a trike that always give me the willies due to an unfortunate accident when Colt was a toddler. It involved me...flying down the driveway on the back of the trike...doing that one foot on the back step, one foot pushing off the ground, and leaning over the seat and holding onto the handle bar thing. I was trying to show Colton how fun it would be. He was just standing off to the side, looking at me like, "That looks kinda dangerous." Well...as I reached mid driveway and was achieving break-necking speed, while yelling, "Weeeeeeeeeeee...this is fun!!!!!"...the front wheel came off and the rest is history. I flipped over the handle bars and landed hard. I couldn't move. I knew my arm was broken. It wasn't. But it took me a good long while to be able to get up. Colton ran to me, frantically crying, "Mommy ok? Mommy ok?" Chase was a couple of weeks old and was snoozin in the bouncy seat. I was laying in a weird position down the driveway with tricycle parts all over the place and blood dripping from several different body parts. And Colton had to go get the phone to call Chad to come home. He still insists that tricycles are not safe.
But it's a YES walk. So I can't tell her no. It's the rules.
She rings the bell. And my fear of being on the back of a trike floats away with every ding, ding, ding of the 50's style, silver bell. I feel like we are back in a simpler time...where we should be rockin poodle skirts and saddle oxfords.
We came in and enjoyed chips and salsa. She showed her dainty side, pinkies up style.
That evening, I gave a practice spelling test while a made dinner.
He hits his pencil against the iron paper towel holder to "ding" when he is ready for the next word. The system works well.
Sunday morning, we headed to church. It is a special baptism service. 250+ people were baptized that morning to the sound of worship and cheers. It was amazing to watch.
Even for the kids.
Chad baptized Colton...surrounded by family.
It was beautiful.
Right in the middle of the service, Colton looked at us and said, "I'm ready to do this."
Sunday night, we had chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes.
Grandaddy played the wii with the kids and Granna read blogs and kept me company in the kitchen.
And then...the most vivid rainbow I've ever seen shown bright in our sky and gave new meaning to the lullaby of choice for our kids...Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
Because, somewhere over this rainbow...was us.
And then it was time to officially end Summer.
Goodbye Summer of 2011. You were good to us.
Welcome Fall. I can't wait for your adventures.
2 comments:
you know...menagerie means collection of animals.
Thank you, UK. You know...when I typed that...I remembered you looking it up on the way home from wolf creek. Made me laugh.
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