Every now and then you witness a little miracle. I really thought I was witnessing one this morning. I woke up at 6:30 to The Sound of My Alarm. This might not strike anyone as notable, but it's been a long, long time since I heard it. I typically wake up to Michael's morning moans, and I occasionally wake up a few minutes before the morning fun begins. But the most remarkable parts of my waking, and what I thought was miraculous, was that not only was no one moaning, but it wasn't raining. After a LONG dry spell, it started raining last night. (Jeff finally got out the hose and soaked the azaleas yesterday afternoon. After that, the rain was inevitable.) It rained all night, and it was a really, really hard rain. But when I woke up, it was silent. I had just enough time to process this and think, "Wow! I'm going to get to work on time, and maybe a little early," when Michael started crying. And the rain started again. Doh.
But this afternoon, I did witness a miracle, at least one based on my very low and desperate standards. I stayed home from work due to both Jeff and me having a mild stomach bug, which was probably the result of Ree bringing home germies from school and the stress of last week. Jeff and I decided to nap in shifts, and while he was napping, Ree asked me to play in her room. Again, this doesn't sound like a big deal, but I was holding Michael at the time she asked. The boys are NOT ALLOWED in her room. Last year she requested a baby gate for her door to keep the boys out when we told her she was not allowed to play behind closed doors. She frequently runs in there and slams the gate to ensure her toys go unharmed (unless she happens to step on them since she always has every toy she owns out at once). Her room is sacred. And, besides, she has never really liked her brothers.
I told her that I could only play if Michael could come in too. I also gave her the option of bringing her paper dolls out to the living room where Michael could play too. She shocked me by saying that Michael could come in, and she even suggested activities for him. We all played in there for awhile, and then Leon woke up from his nap. I figured the fun was over. Without his brother's influence, Michael is a pretty calm child. Plus he was respectful so that he didn't get kicked out of his sister's Mecca. But Leon is a whole other story. So I asked if Leon could play too, and Ree said yes, and I said that I would have to go if things got too crazy.
It turns out, Leon was respectful too, and the boys magically did not encourage each other to do crazy things. Leon was delighted to "cook" with all of Ree's play food (the boys have a much more limited selection with their toys). Michael was bug-eyed at the thought of all the books in her closet. Both Leon and Michael enjoyed playing with all her musical instruments. All three kids managed to play together for an hour and a half, and they only stopped them when I offered them snacks. In the end, the room was trashed, but the 90 minutes of peace was miraculous.
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