Monday, November 23, 2009

For a Little While





"Herod is dead! HEROD is DEAD." Jack's hollering the morning in with a dramatic re-interpretation of the Christmas story. "He's dead! I killed him." All three-year-old gusto he thunders down the hallway. Our bedroom door rattles. None of this pansy Santa stuff.

Later Jane introduces Lulie to lipstick. It's the sort of affair that ends with jagged pouty lips, big smiles, and freak-out-Mom about the big stain on Lulie's sweater. Janie responds, "Well, at least I'm not killed, Momma."

The afternoon wears on. Jack assembles, dismantles, and reassembles two puzzles. Lulie colors a pictures, eats some green crayon, colors her ear. Jane tries to knit, rolls a tremendous ball of turquoise yarn. In the whirlwind she stops, "Momma, if I drank a bunch of water would I get a big hump on my back?"

After good night kisses, hugs, prayers, lights out, we slip back down the hall. Some nights they tallywagger over closing their door. Tonight no one gripes. Jane whispers, "Jack, do you want to close the door so we can talk to God?"

A quiet pause and, "Ok. For a little while."

5 comments:

Lori said...

I love this day-in-the-life post. The girls and I want to jump in the car and join you for the daily shenanigans - lipstick stains and all. :)

PS - "Pansy Santa stuff..." ha! Love it!

Goat said...

It says of Mary that she treasured certain things in her heart. These are the things I treasure. Explorations, gusto, full steam ahead. Unspoiled innocence.

Daniel and Cerissa said...

I love Janie's totally out of the box questions! She is a crack up with her wild thoughts combined with serious expression. I'm missing our times together!

Olson Family said...

"None of this pansy Santa stuff..." Sweet explorations, experiments, and expressions... It's as though you go through your day cutting out precious moments to paste in a collage, to treasure... and to share with the rest of us.

Thank you.

Keisha Valentina said...

Oh how I love your "a day in the life of" posts! I can't get enough of them, seriously!