“Mommy, you are my mommy.”

With "my R&R."

“Mommy, you r my mommy. Daddy is my daddy. EEE yie (Eli) is my brother.” This is the mantra  repeated over and over the past two weeks. Sidney clearly knows we are her family, “to infinity and beyond,” as I like to say. It wasn’t a possessive and selfish three year old tone she was using. It was a knowing and understanding tone. One that indicated, she was joyful and happy. It sounded like, “WWWWOOOOWWWW!!!! You are my mom!!!!! I am so special!!!! You are mine forever!!!!!” Hearing these words, I was stunned. It’s easy to think the wounds should be closed, leaving her unable to feel anything resembling impermanency in her life. But for all the hurdles, there are even more victories. 

Hungry panda.

OK, enough of the serious stuff. VBS came to an end, hallelujah! I don’t think my feet could have taken another night. I am always happy when we can return the kids to their parents after five evenings unscathed. And, we did. I looked back at my photos of the event, and there were so many smiling faces. This is why it’s worth the hours of planning and work. And in the end, if the message this week touched just one child and had a positive impact, it was worth it. 

Fun duct tape.

That being said, it was so nice to spend the weekend doing nothing but recover my house from the last week and go swimming with Eli and our good friends. What a great way to get outside on a day with a heat advisory. It was another opportunity to spend one on one time with Eli and use the last days of summer. Sidney was napping comfortably in the A/C, so she stayed with daddy for the afternoon.

Tomorrow we register for 4^th grade and preschool. I know I sound like every other mom that blogs. But, holy cow, where did the time go between kindergarten and 4^th grade? Maybe it was the technology list that threw me over the edge. Eli’s class was lumped in the category of 4^th-8^th grade with individual class lists of items needed in the computer lab. Hopefully, they move beyond keyboarding this year. Eli was not a fan. That’s ok, because neither was I in high school on the old school machines.