Snapshots

There are those moments when I am watching my children and I wish I had a camera or the ability to always remember that exact moment. I want to remember everything...the look, the sounds, the feel. Those are the snapshot moments that I keep with me. Here are a few from recent memory.

Odessa:

We are trying to get everyone out of the car and into the church on a rainy Sunday morning. Odessa takes off after the older kids, running as fast as her chubby little legs will take her, but loses a shoe in the process. Instead of picking up the shoe and continuing into the building, she picks it up and plops herself down in the middle of the rain soaked parking lot. I didn't know if I should laugh or cry as I watched her try to get her shoe on. I ran to her, hauling her into the building and laughing as I went. She was completely unaffected by how wet she was and just wanted her shoe on. Oh, how I love that little girl.

Katherine:

Katherine had to have a bunch of dental work done this week, and since she is only four, and not my bravest four-year old, I opted to have her sedated and get the work all done at once. She did wonderfully, but had a difficult time waking up from the anaesthesia. As she began to come-to, I leaned over and kissed her forehead. When I looked down into her face, she had puckered up her little lips and remained that way until I placed my cheek by them so she could kiss me back. She was so groggy, but so insistent on kissing me. She is such a beauty and so sweet!

Lillie:

Lillie brought home a bunch of work from school on Friday. I usually glance through it to see if there's anything the kids either need help with or a little extra work at home. They recently started multiplication and as I went through her work, I could see that she is struggling with it a little bit. She was standing by me, so I picked out a couple of problems to go over with her to see if she knew why they were wrong. One problem had a picture of two firefighters and asked how many fingers they had. Lillie told me they had eight fingers. I looked up at her, questioningly, and held out my own hands and asked again. She then informed me that they had eight fingers and two thumbs. I looked into her freckled face and I could see tears in her eyes. She thinks so much like her father. I explained that for the purpose of this question, the thumbs counted as fingers. She nearly cried, but I loved her so much at that moment. With her piggy tails flying out of control, her beat-up legs, and her wild personality, she was so sad that she misunderstood what was being asked of her. As difficult as she can be, she loves to please people.

Emily:

Can I just keep her little like this for a while? Why do they have to grow so fast?

Andrew:

Last week we went to the park as a family for a picnic. It was wonderful. Andrew and his father threw the football back and forth for a bit and I just wanted to freeze that moment. He's so tall and strong. I love to watch him and his father do things together.

Michael:

As I was hugging Michael goodnight last night, he squeezed me and said, "Mom, thanks for letting me have my own turtle. I'm very fortunate that you let me have a pet turtle." It never ceases to amaze me when he uses big words. He's done it since he was really little and I love how he's able to express himself. Michael is one cool kid!