No Gifts Please

Tonight as Bella was settling down for the night, I went and sat next to her. She hopped up and threw her arms around my neck, gave me a kiss and said, "Happy Tomorrow Valentine's Day Mommy." 

It really is the thought that counts. Best Valentine I ever got.

The Simple Life

I bought Bella this t-shirt today. The photo doesn't do it justice. The pink dress and ballet shoes are sparkly and the tiny dog is doing the same ballet move as the girl. I bought it because when Bella saw it, her face lit up like fireworks on the 4th of July and she gasped. I asked her if she wanted it and she said, "Oh yes Mommy. It's beautiful, just BEAUTIFUL!" 

It was such a magical moment. Something so simple.  She was overjoyed. The simple things should make us happy.  I've learned more about life from her in the past 4 years than I have in my 40. 

She is beautiful, just beautiful.

Skip Skip Skip to My Lou

I try to make it to the gym 3-4 times a week. Sometimes work and life get in the way. The other day Bella was anxiously waiting to go (they have a great kids club there), but I ended up knee deep in jobs that I had to finish. She was hounding me "When are we going to the gym Mommy?" I finally answered, "Well, I think we're going to skip the gym today." to which she replied, "Can't we take the car? I don't want to skip there!"

Not a bad idea. If we skipped to the gym, workout accomplished. 

The Fountain of Youth

Late yesterday afternoon Bella and I were at the supermarket. We were slowly making our way through the aisles ( I forgot my list so was trying to remember everything we needed). There was a bus full of elderly people there from a nearby retirement home. Bella was sitting in the cart, singing, chatting, making funny remarks about everything. About half way through the store, I had a feeling we were being followed. Sure enough, there was a line of little old ladies, tagging along behind us, not looking for groceries, but listening to Bella. They all had big smiles on their faces and seemed to have a new spring in their steps. We stopped and chatted a little. Bella charmed them all. 

On our way home I got a little choked up thinking about how much my grandfather would have loved Bella. He died long before she was born. I realized how fast time goes and how precious these years are. I can only hope all my grandparents are still here with us, maybe skipping along quietly behind us as we browse through the cookie aisle.

My reply as a child was always "No, I'm just dancing."

Bella was standing next to my desk playing a game on one of my computers. It is obvious she has to go potty. I asked her, "Bella, do you have to go potty?" to which she replied without taking her eyes away from the screen, "No, I'm just standing real high on my toes."

That's a new one.

Bella Unabridged

Abuela is coming to visit tomorrow (that's Grandma for all of the non-spanish speakers out there). Bella is very excited. She's been asking all week, "How many more days until Abuela?". This morning she was getting ready for school and I told her that when she got home, she needed to help me clean up the house for Abuela's visit. She casually said, "We should start with your closet. It is disastrous in there!"

Her 4-year old vocabulary never ceases to amaze me! Webster would be proud.

(and she's very observant too - my closet is a disaster!)

Hmmmm

I was just sitting at my desk getting a little work done, when Bella crawled into my office pretending to be a dog. Barking, wagging her tail, sniffing around. Then all of a sudden she hopped up and ran out of the room. I heard the bathroom door shut. 

I hope she's not drinking out of the toilet.

Old Soul

When Bella was a baby, an uncanny number of people, strangers, told me that she was an "old soul". I'll never forget one day we were standing in line at the grocery store and a very kind looking old woman was standing in line behind us. She and Bella locked eyes, Bella's face was very  sober. They stared at each other for at least a minute. The woman leaned forward and said softly to me, "She's been here before."

This week I came down with strep throat and Daddy was out of town, it was a rough few days until the antibiotics kicked in. I felt like I was hit by a truck.  On the worst day, I took Bella to the store and let her pick out a movie and any treat she wanted. We went home and made a "movie theater" in the basement and she watched her movies and ate as many cookies as she wanted (right out of the box), curled up in my arms while I slept. Hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. So last night I laid down in bed next to her and said, "Thank you Honey for being such a good girl and taking care of me when I was sick. I really appreciate it." She  gently put her hand on my face and said, "Mommy, sometimes I will help  you, and sometimes I won't. But I always love you."

I think her old soul has been here before. 

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

In the car this morning, Bella was singing songs and it started to rain a little so she broke into "It's Raining, It's Pouring". After 'the old man is snoring' she said, "How does the rest go again?" so I finished it "He bumped his head and he went to bed and he couldn't get up in the morning." 

Then she said, "And then what happened?"

Huh? I have no idea what happened after that...never really thought about it before. My guess is that the prognosis was not good, considering his age and the fact that he probably went to sleep with a concussion, but I wasn't really prepared to explain all of that to a  4 year old, so instead I asked her what she thought happened next.  Her version went something like this (sung in the same tune as the song). 

He went outside

with his pajamas on

and he looked pretty silly without his rain hat on.

Everyone loves a silly ending.

Three Blogs for the Price of One

In about 45 minutes it will be 2009. The days of late night celebrating are long gone. My family and I spent a quiet night at home, happy to be with each other and looking forward to the adventures the next year has to offer. The past few weeks have been busy so I have been jotting down notes on scraps of paper here and there of things I have been meaning to write about...

Holiday time. We are not church-goers or religious people, so I have struggled as to what to teach Bella about this time of year. So far, we have celebrated by decorating a tree and exchanging gifts, but we haven't really talked about Christmas, Hanukkah, etc. and what the holidays really mean. So the day after Christmas I asked Bella, "What is Christmas?". She replied "It's a special day to celebrate". "What do we celebrate?" I asked. She replied, "Well, we celebrate snow and presents and dogs and people and EVERYTHING!". " I asked, "What else do we celebrate?". She said, "Hanukkah." Then she sang the Dradle song (and she knew all the words?). Surprised, I asked her what Christmas and Hanukkah had in common and she said, " Celebrating with our families". I guess maybe I should not worry about what we can teach her, and think about what she can teach us.

Bella got a new piggy bank a few months back. It is divided into 3 sections. Spend, Save and Share. Every week she gets an allowance and we divide the money by percentages into the three banks.  A few days ago we counted up all the money and Bella made her first purchase. I told her she could buy anything she wanted. She walked up and down the toy aisles at Target, carefully looking at all her options. She finally chose a Barbie doll that came with a dog with 3 puppies. She counted out all the money at the checkout line and handed it to the cashier. Mommy was a little teary-eyed as we walked out of the store.  From there we counted out the "Share" money and went to Brent's Place, an organization that provides a home away from  home for kids with cancer and their families. Bella donated $5.07 (mostly in quarters and dimes!) and Mommy and Daddy matched it. They were very grateful and told her her money would be used to buy hot chocolate and cookies for the kids as a special treat after playtime. We told them we'd be back again at the end of next year. Mommy walked out even more teary-eyed from there. No words can describe the joy in seeing your child growing up to be a loving, responsible and comapssionate person. This year has been filled with moments like these and for that I am thankful.

And finally, yesterday we were walking into the supermarket and Bella reached for my hand and said, "Mommy, let's skip and sing, "Shiny! Shiny! Shiny smiles!". So we did.

Happy New Year to you. I can't wait to see what 2009 brings.