Tag: laughter

children, gratitude, happiness, humor, mommyhood

The Sword Fighting Champion

WFAM

Little T.Puzzle and I settled back into the couch’s cushions and prepared for the smack-down sword fight to begin. Full Speed was already talking a big game. Before he had convinced Mad Dog to do battle, he had tried unsuccessfully to sweet talk me into a sword match.

“Mom, remember how you used to be sword-fighting champion of the world?” he argued.

Not really. I’m guessing at some point either myself or Mad Dog made this outrageous claim to entertain ourselves. Leave it to Full Speed to file this fictitious tidbit in his infallible memory and believe it as truth.

As ‘sword-fighting champion of the world’ I politely declined.  Full Speed was more than happy to turn his aggression on Mad Dog.

About the third match in, Full Speed crouched low to the ground. You could sense he was pooling his energy in his legs and was about to burst forward and administer a mighty blow.

Little T.Puzzle and I waited for the dramatic outcome. Full Speed yelled, flailed his arms and shot up like a rocket. Instead of his sword making contact with Mad Dog, it flew out of his hand and landed harmlessly a few feet away.

I burst into laughter. Soon, we are all cracking-up and I realized that being a sword-fighting champion pales in comparison to a great, cacophonous laughing fit.

Thanks for the chuckle, Full Speed!

kids, loss of parent, mommyhood

Sunny Skies

WFAM

As you readers are well aware, I have been facing my share of challenges with little T.Puzzle and his emotional outbursts. Thankfully, I went through similar challenges with his older brother (we all survived!), and if you can believe, T.Puzzle is actually less of a handful to manage. Of course, beginning a New Year feeling extremely sick (I was back at the doctor again today) and realizing this is a year that will have no new memories of my Mom, I haven’t been dealing very positively with T.Puzzle. If I felt super-heatlhy and was grief-free, I would be frustrated and sigh a few times, but I would know that it is only a phase. I would maybe exhibit more patience and emit a more positive vibe. That would possibly help more than any amount of discipline I impose on him.

To try to change the energy between us, I spent extra one-on-one time with him yesterday. Full Speed was gone for the day/night with his Grandpa on a camping trip so I seized the moment. I picked up little T.Puzzle from school early, took him on a long bike ride, stopped at a nature spot to look for frogs (there were none, it was too cold). Then, after I fed him dinner, we went and sat on the lanai and snuggled under a blanket. We sang songs, talked about all the things we could see and made each other laugh. At one point I leaned down and wordlessly kissed his forehead. He looked up and said, “I love you, too, Mommy.” It felt good.

I know I have to make more of an effort to meet T.Puzzle halfway. He is going through the same transitions of growth as his brother before him. For whatever reason this is very hard for him. It’s hard for all of us.

And it all comes down to this. There’s a reason your kids look so incredibly angelic and peaceful when they sleep. It helps you remember on your worst days, that beneath the storm; sunny skies are always within our reach.