The big question

This evening Bee was eating a snack of goldfish crackers and periodically dropping one on the floor for Max.  She likes for him to come running and gobble up whatever stray bit of food she has cast his way.

Once I realized she was doing this, I told her, "'Please do not drop any more crackers on the floor."  

Her response was to turn and look at me with her guileless blue eyes and ask, "Why?"

Why, indeed?

I suspect that 2009 will be the year of the Why.

Happy New Year!

On my radar

Over the past two years I have come to believe that there is a special frequency that allows mothers to hear their children's voices anywhere, regardless of the level of surrounding noise. The Mommy frequency causes me to snap my attention to Bee like a needle on a compass.

Imagine my surprise this evening when I was walking home from work and heard Bee's voice saying, "Mom-mee!" clear across a four lane road. 

In an instant, I asked myself, "Where is my daughter's voice coming from and how could she possibly be so loud?" 

My head whipped around so quickly that my eyes struggled to catch up. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw David, Max, and Bee (ensconced in her stroller and many layers as it is freezing here) standing at the entrance to the peasant museum.  They had walked over in the hopes of catching my sister on her way back to our apartment.  The earlier plan was for the three of them to go together but evidently Bee threw a tantrum about wearing snow pants, which are really not an option when it is 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside.   They found me instead.  

I don't know where Bee's powers of elocution come from. But she certainly caught my attention. 

Imagination

Watching Bee's imagination unfold was one of the biggest gifts I received this past holiday season. Her games have become more and more elaborate. Her sense of timing and humor has developed.  Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that he is only two years old, not a miniature person with whom I can reason:

One of her favorite games, at present, is setting up a church in her play area. She lines up all her stuffed animals on chairs, admonishes them to be quiet, and says a few prayers.  I almost cried the first time I realized what she was doing.  It makes the stress of going to Romanian mass with the shushing grannies worthwhile.

She also loves to iron, a trait not inherited from either of her parents.  If only she were old enough the wield the real thing, David would always have a fresh shirt.

Auto repair comes naturally.

One of the saddest, and at the same time more joyful, parts of this year has been watching Bee's babyhood and toddlerhood come to an end.  My little squidgy baby, who for the first year of life was permanently attached to either David or I, can now initiate negotiations about why she ought to have a second glass of juice or a cookie after dinner.  

Bee's transformation into a sparkling, wonderful preschooler makes me indescribably proud, yet at the same time, a bit sad.  The thread connecting Bee and I grows longer as she grows into her own self.  Hopefully, it grows stronger with the passing years as well. 

Wishing you

a warm holiday season!

Peace on Earth

good will to all.

Happiness is

--Watching David teach my father to play Lego Star Wars, heads bent together over the remote control.  Their running commentary is hilarious, but in a "you gotta be there" kind of way.  

--Bee's impromptu concert of the two Christmas carols she knows, We Three Kings and Silent Night, performed with myriad interpretation, and punctuated by excessive twirling and arm waving. (Is that how I dance? Who exactly is she imitating?)

--Baking Toll House chocolate chip cookies with my Mom, and decorated them by putting one Christmas M&M in the center of each one.

--Knowing my little sister arrives tomorrow night.

At last!

It has been a long day, but I will sleep well and happy tonight knowing that both my Mom and Dad are here.

I am lucky to have such wonderful parents whose company I enjoy so much.  I am even luckier that they are willing to fly across the Atlantic ocean to the wilds of Eastern Europe to come visit me (well, really Bee, but me too) and bring me all the baking supplies I have been missing (light brown sugar, crisco, mace).  

With my sister's arrival on the 23rd, it really will be home for the holidays.  

Home is where the people you love are all together.