One of the many trips to the children’s museum…
I’ve spent the past two and a half weeks being Julie, the Cruise Director from The Love Boat, for my children. Because they were off from school, I planned playdates, outings, movies, and all sorts of activities. Each night, I would sip a glass of wine and shake my head at how exhausted I was.
There were holidays, parties and even family visits in there too.
Each day, I noticed my patience getting less and less and my bitchiness getting more and more.
On the last day of vacation, I was just down right punchy. And sick. I finally got the head and chest cold that had gone through the whole family. I was exhausted.
And just when I was getting ready to find out the value of my children on the black market, something happened.
My six-year-old daughter asked if I would take a nap with her.
Usually this consists of her kicking me and poking her feet into various ribs and organs of my body. However, this time was different.
As I laid wrapped in five thousand layers to combat my chills, she snuggled in close and took both of my hands in hers.
She softly kissed each one and tucked them under her body to warm them up.
I should have pulled them away so as not to infect her with my germs, but I couldn’t. They were so warm and so kind.
Together we slept on the last day of vacation, our hands locked together, and I forgot all about the insanity from the past two weeks. I didn’t even feel sick for those few minutes. I felt warm. I felt loved.
Often, at the end of the day, I think about some of the things I did wrong as a parent. However, on that day, I thought of one thing I did right.
Loving her.
And loving her is never something I could do wrong.
