1m2aSandbox

For whatever reason, we’re sick
again – though this time at least it’s just a common
cold.


Maddie started sniffling Monday, with full-blown sneezes and drips
by night time. Cora seemed to be escaping it, though I began to
feel rundown Tuesday evening. Then came Tuesday night, with Cora up
all night long. And I mean that almost literally.


She’d fall asleep, sleep for ten minutes, then wake up
screaming and crying “No, no, no!” or “Stop
it!”. I’d rock her and sing to her, she’d fall
asleep, and then we’d start the cycle all over again. In
desperation, I brought her in with me at 3 a.m., but it took her
another three hours to sink into a deep sleep.


I thought she’d be running a high fever and feeling awful on
Wednesday, but she appeared to have just the typical cold –
sneezes, drips, sniffles, and a bit of droopiness. I felt it as
well, though I’m sure the sleepless night didn’t help.


I’m hoping this will be a short one, though Maddie’s
the forerunner and she’s showing no signs of easing up yet.
And I’m reminding myself that my house isn’t actually
plague-ridden.


It just feels that way sometimes.


Oh well – we had a great week last week, and I’ll be
grateful for that and take what I can get.

Monday we went to our local Arboretum, and
they were offering free face painting and storytelling and more.
Maddie and Cora both got their faces painted like a daisy, and
Maddie was so entranced by the idea that she announced we needed to
have a Daisy party on Tuesday. She wanted to dress up like a daisy
and decorate the house with daisies.


I should say here that we have impromptu parties probably more
regularly than most people – every couple of months or so.
Planning the decorations and getting ready is half the fun, and
Maddie and Cora love celebrating the simple things in life. So if I
can give my daughter a party, I’ll do it.


Plus, it kills a few hours with one blow.

A couple days ago I was driving down the
highway when Cora asked for her pacifier. Now, we’ve been
working on weaning her – graaaaaaaadually – from her
pacifier, so I try to stall and put her off and avoid the thing in
the car unless it’s absolutely urgent. So she’d ask for
“Pacifier, peeese!” and I’d reply, “Ok,
honey, hang on, I’ll have to look for it.”


Each request became a bit more urgent, until about the fourth time
Cora said, “Mommy! Pacifier! PEEEEEEEEEEESE!”
“Well, honey, Mommy can’t find it,” I replied,
which was technically true – I’d buried it in the
diaper bag so I wouldn’t be a liar.


There was silence for a few moments, and then from the back of my
seat a question floated up:


“Why not?”


Yes, Cora’s learned how to ask “Why”.

A couple years ago my friend Graham
recommended a children’s Bible called href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBig-Picture-Story-Bible%2Fdp%2F1581342772%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1238383564%26sr%3D8-1&tag=1mother2anoth-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325"
target="_blank">The Big Picture Story Bible. I’d
been looking for something to start reading to Maddie, and
didn’t want simply a regular Bible with kid-friendly pictures
in it. As soon as this book arrived, I knew I’d found my
answer.


Maddie enjoyed flipping through the Bible off and on, but about six
months ago she really started getting interested in reading it.
Since then, she’s been reading several stories a week, if not
one or two a day, and I’m trying to make a Sunday night
snuggle with a glass of milk and a Bible chapter part of our weekly
routine with the girls.

Cora recently woke up waaaaaaaaay too
early and was clearly not going back to sleep. On such mornings, I
bring her into bed with me, hoping she’ll go back to sleep if
she’s snuggled up against Mommy. This hardly ever happens,
but she enjoys Mommy time so much that she will easily lie quietly
for twenty or thirty minutes, allowing me to doze in and out, until
she can’t take it any longer.


When Cora’s been as patient as she can be, she’ll thump
her feet a few times to make sure I’m awake. Then
she’ll roll over and crawl into my face and whisper,
“Mommy, my tummy’s hungry. Let’s go downstairs,
get Cora some breakfast.” I’ll good-naturedly get up,
thankful for those extra minutes of dozing time, and get ready for
the day.


But the other morning I was truly tired, and really needed to
sleep. Cora must have sensed that because she lay there quietly for
an hour before even saying a word. And even then, she didn’t
thump to awaken me – she just talked quietly. “Mommy,
are you still asleep?”


“Mmmhmm,” I answered sleepily.


“Oh,” was all she said, and I felt the disappointment
in her body. But then she resigned herself, and pressed closer to
me for a snuggle, still silent, still willing to let me sleep.


These are the sweet moments that make the rest of the times worth
it.

The first time Maddie went to gymnastics
class, we discovered that the training school’s team
practiced at the same time. And when I say “team”, I
mean the girls who are hoping to compete in the next Olympics
– remember, this is the home of Nastia Liukin and Carly
Patterson. The team coach is a former Olympic gold medalist
herself. So Maddie watched the girls in wonder as they went through
their flips and leaps and spins around the bars, and couldn’t
tear her eyes off of them. Uh-oh, I thought.


And I was right. As we left, Maddie turned to me with stars in her
eyes and said, “Mama, where can I get one of those sparkly
leotards?”

With Cora’s insatiable curiosity and
burning desire to do whatever Maddie does coloring every step she
takes, her big sister Maddie has learned that honey is sweeter than
vinegar.


Maddie constructs elaborate games nearly every day – stories
about Thomas, plays involving every single animal we’ve got
in the Little People Kingdom, an elaborate picnic for her teddy
bears – the variations are endless but with one theme in
common: Maddie, and only Maddie, understands the plot and rules of
the game, and no one else can play. She’ll set up a story in
the morning right after breakfast, and come back to it all day
long. As a rule, we clean up every night before bed, but I allow
Maddie to leave her games overnight if I can tell she’s still
in the midst of an epic.