!!!

(Things that Made Me Happy This Week)

Remembering how it felt to wait for the BFF to arrive.

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The reveal of “the first felt shoes invented by kids.” Once they take off, I’ll be SO set.

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Leaving behind the loud, velcro rip and complete restriction of the Papoose board. First, when I stood next to TWO as she got the stitches, and then when she had them removed. Both times I stroked her face and sang to her, thanking God that we could leave the hospital the moment the doctors finished. And that her injury wasn’t more serious. And that she was healthy.

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4 inches of TWO’S babyhood – GONE.

(Baby-fine tangles and listening to a 2YO’s “No brush-a-my hair” excuses also GONE. My favorite excuse? “No brush-a-my hair, Mama. I have a rash.”)

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Before I could ask what a rash had to do with getting her hair brushed, she turned to her sister and said:

TWO: Oh, I have a rash, ONE.

ONE: You have a rash? You know what that means…

TWO & ONE: RASH PRESENT!!!

Apparently we celebrate poor, personal hygiene with tissue-paper flowers in our house.

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Not to be outdone in the bathroom department, ONE  screamed, “MAMA!” from the toilet. I knew it wasn’t as urgent as she pretended, or urgent at all. But I walked in anyway. “Yes?” I said. She smiled at me as she wiped. “I just wanted to tell you that I’m going to stop yelling at you to wipe me. ‘Cause I’m 5 now and I know you’re not my servant.” If only I believed that…

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And then it was my turn. I got to do a little clothes shopping this weekend. I went into the first dressing room all hopped up on child-less, no-curfew adrenaline. And as I started to pull off my jeans, the underwear I must have worn the LAST time I wore the jeans fell out, and slipped across the dressing room floor.

The good news is that I stuffed them into my purse and (to my knowledge) no one saw them. But runaway panties in public? What a rush.

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Over the last few weeks I’ve been struggling to settle into a no-school routine, struggling to get used to the new addition of kid-fights, and struggling to find the time to write more than just !!! posts. I was so tired of what was turning into normalcy. I wanted calmer, better, happier days. And then a good friend read me this quote by Mary Jean Iron:

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.

Nothing like a good friend to get you over yourself.

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And then I sat with ONE, arms wrapped around her as she cried (again) about school being over. I didn’t say anything this time because she didn’t seem to want comfort. I thought maybe the best thing I could do was just listen. In silence. When she was done she gave me a hug and said, “School might be out, but you know what I’m glad about? That you’ll never stop being my mama.“

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What makes you

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!!! = Intentional Happiness

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Tagged as: ER, family, happiness, school, stitches