My Children Made me This Way

It’s been a long day. I am tired. I keep thinking I should post..but ugh. I so can’t be bothered. Cleaning closets. Getting summer clothes out. Putting winter clothes away. Making everyone try on everything to see whats to big, whats to small, what can be passed on to whom. Soccer practice started today, D on Tues. and then S on Thurs. and games on Sat.

And the Monsters. Spring is in the air, but that air can’t make up it’s mind. 80 one day and then 50 the next. So they are bickering.It’s just the usual brother sister sort of thing, but it’s enough that when I got online today and I saw this comic strip, I had to laugh. It’s perfect.

And that just says it all.

It’s quiet here. Not something that happens often, but a thing so complete when it does that it makes me shiver with the promise of the future. It is most assuredly the sound of the future for a mother who is watching her children grow. Silence is the double edged sword that we seek and we fear. It is the thing that we want most but know that it holds the things that we fear.

It holds the promise that something that should not be happening is. Ask any mother, any parent really, and they will tell you that quiet in a house full of children in the middle of the day is very rarely a good thing. And is that quiet comes from a yard, oh that has a double concern. That holds that slight whisper of fear that they are either at something they should not be, or the terror that they are no longer there. Mischief is quiet and loss is silence.

It is that quiet that wakes me from a full and hard sleep in the morning, even when I have been up till dawn. It is that sudden stillness of my house that makes my breath catch and my heart race, and puts me awake with my feet on the floor before I even think. The Monsters go quiet right at the heavy moment before they wake, and that is what wakes me. I can move quietly from room to room, touching finger tips to sleep flushed cheeks and ponder the quiet that will be.

Even when they sleep the Monsters make noise. There is the soft huffing of breath takes, sighs and the noises of restless rolling. They talk in their sleep, to no one, to each other, to everyone. There are little snorts and snores. There is comfort in that sound. And it is that thing that I think I will miss the most. Someday when that silence is complete, and the Monsters are grown and gone.

I wonder if it will wake me then, or if I will have finally earned a full night’s sleep that does not come in fits and starts with the restlessness of a child’s whispers and sighs. I am not sure I look forward to knowing. Today I am glad the silence is no cause for concern, a temporary reprieve as they pour over coloring books for a second day. I am not ready to have that silence redefine me.

Solstice is over but tonight is the absolute longest night for the Monsters. They have been bouncing all day, they have been threatening each others behavior with Santa and the naughty/nice list.  It’s hard to find things to occupy minds and hands that are already caught up in day dreams of what tomorrow will bring. They are already lost in the excitement.

At the moment they have popcorn and are watching The Santa Clause 2 and we are tracking Santa online with Norad . After the movie we will do cookies and milk for Santa, brush teeth,  and then they will get tucked in. About 16 times. It will take everyone forever to fall asleep tonight. (even me)

I love watching them on days like today when they are bright eyed and pink cheeked with anticipation. It is one of those things that makes me smile and is the best thing about being a mom.

So Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight.

It is exactly a week till Christmas. Seven days. And this is the most glorious week of the year. You see this is the week the Monster exhibit their best behavior. This is the week that in their minds is of the utmost importance because every bad thing they have done the other 358 days can be reversed in the eyes of Santa during what I like to refer to as Redemption Week.

Please and thank you will are tossed about with out reminders, and even offered to one another.

Homework is done as soon as they get home and without asking.

Meals are eaten without a single ‘Yuck’ or “EEeww’ uttered. They will even use napkins and that those table manners I thought went in one ear and out the other.

There is no running, ball throwing, or tag being played in the house and not once is it because I had to threaten them.

Lights get turned off. Dishes find the sink. Towels and coats both are hung up. Shoes and clothes are put away. Neatly even. I can even see bedroom floors.

Arguments between siblings are short and quiet. As though they are hoping that the volume and duration will keep possible negativity to a minimum.

They show a mastery of inside voices that brings tears to my eyes.

Bed times are not only be observed they are brought to my attention five minutes ahead of time. Faces are be washed, teeth are brushed and they call sweetly for tucking in.

There really are so many reasons to love this time of year.