If you want to see day 4 1/2 of NYC (New York public library, an attempt at the Tenement Museum, Chrysler Building lobby, and getting lost), see here.
I'm off on a mini date with two of my kiddos. It was going to be just one, but the other one tried to get my attention by cleaning two bathrooms and mopping a room. Ha ha. I think he got my attention. Cute. I was trying to be really firm so a little girl could get some time with just me (I'm going to take each of them on a date before school starts), but I figure I can take her when the others are in school.
I Saw Happiness
I saw happiness that
Morning
In a sink of dish washing
Suds
As my four year-old
Burst in to tell me
That our
Bleeding-Heart-had-bloomed-and-it’s-in-the-shape-of-a-heart
Is-that-why-it’s-called-a-bleeding-heart-and-I-saw-a-cool-bug
I-named-it-a-dragon-bug-what-do-dragon-bugs-do?
Then, leaving me to my thoughts,
His hair standing up quizzically in the back,
I smiled within myself as
The door muffled his receding
tromp-tromp-tromp.
Then through the kitchen window,
A perfect view
Of his sister,
Throwing her
Bouncy ball into the air with all her might,
Little arms barely clearing her head.
First trying the grass,
Then finding a better spot in the
Scrawled yesterday’s painted sidewalk,
Filled with
Bright blue and yellow balloons,
Rockets,
And a rudimentary hopscotch.
And I remembered that I’d given up
Office work,
Kayaking,
And a world championship in the hurdles,
Subjected my body to stretch marks,
Varicose veins, and sleep deprivation experiments
(thinking as I read her Pooh that my head too was stuffed with fluff)
To watch my baby sleep,
Her soft breath moving in and out,
A two year-old throw her blue ball, unaware of observation,
And a crouching four year-old wonder at the latest
Wandering bug.
I laughed inside myself
To discover that
Happiness had somehow found me
Inside a bowl of rainbow-
swirling dish suds
As the sun filtered through the
Kitchen window
On a late Thursday
Afternoon.
As always, suggestions appreciated! Happy Friday!
