Friday, June 15, 2012

The Little Things

Whenever Jaxon spends the night at my mom’s house during the summer, Alyssa assumes she’s going to stay too. And it seems to be okay with my mom, she’s never said differently and I know that if she didn’t want A there, she’d let me know.

So when I arrived to pick the girls up on Wednesday afternoon, Alyssa raced out to meet me at the car, announcing that she was spending the night the next night.

I laughed and said, “Oh, okay.”

Olivia hung back, watching and waiting. Later that evening, as I was packing a bag for Alyssa to take the next day for her over-nighter with Gram and Jaxon, Olivia watched, quiet. Finally, she asked, “What am I going to do?”

I pulled her close and said, “You get to come home with me.”

She smiled and went about her business.

The next morning, Alyssa was gathering horses to take for the day and night at Gram’s house. Olivia quickly found her new favorite swimsuit and asked me what she could put it in. I handed her at Walmart bag and she happily stuffed the suit in the bag, asking with a grin, “What do I look like?”

I replied with a question of my own, “Do you want to look like you’re spending the night at Gram’s?”

She nodded, slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way downstairs to show her daddy that she looked like she was spending the night too.

I dithered about it all day long, wondering how to broach the subject with my mom. See…I kind of hate inviting myself to anything and I felt like if I brought it up, I was sort of inviting Olivia to stay over instead of Olivia being invited by the owner of the house.

See what I mean?

Except, this is O’s grammy, she loves O as much as I do. I knew that if I told my mom about the morning conversation, she’d tell me, that, duh, of course Olivia can stay.

But she hadn’t said that the day before when Alyssa was going on and on about staying. And I do know that Olivia can be more work than Alyssa and Jaxon, though not more work than the two of them combined. Hmmm….

When I got there yesterday afternoon, I was greeted with poop in O’s swimsuit and an invitation to stay for a spontaneous birthday party for my mom. Yes, her birthday is Flag Day, cool, huh?

So I cleaned the poo, brought in gifts and during one moment when my mom and I were alone, I told her about Olivia’s comment from that morning.

And it went just like I thought it might. Of course Olivia could stay. She is just never as out and open as Alyssa is in her desire to spend the night. If O wanted to stay and be with A and J, it was fine.

After dinner I went home and gathered O’s pajamas, clothes for the next day, her purple blankie and her soft Rapunzel doll.

When I got back, I was once again greeted with poo. Oh, dear sweet Heaven, kid! I cleaned her up AGAIN, this time putting her pajamas on her. She was thrilled to see purple blankie and Rapunzel.

I didn’t get home until almost 8:00 but when there are no kids in the house, 8pm feels early and the evening stretches out like a long, leisurely summer evening just begging for a bit of basking.

I did stop by my mom’s house this morning on my way to work. When I told Tom I was going to do so, he was a bit surprised. He did tell me to tell the girls he said he loved them.

When I arrived, my mom was already up with all three kids. She greeted me at the door with a smile and said that Alyssa had just asked if she thought I’d stop by before going to work.

I’m really glad I did. While I know the girls love spending nights at Gram’s, it’s also nice to start the day with kisses from my girls, knowing they knew that I was thinking of them and wanted to see them. These are the little things, those nights with Gram, the mornings I stop just to kiss them good morning and good bye in the span of 15 minutes, that build beautiful memories. I hope.

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