Recent Events

Digging through our photos, I realize that I never mentioned two lovely events that I got to enjoy with Clio.

Way back in march, we went to the musical version of Mary Poppins, in Denver. My friend Lizzie took her daughter Laila when it was in Minneapolis, and they had a delightful time. I was inspired to check it out--but it was Dakota's dad who actually pushed to make it happen, and we made a date of it.




Clio and Dakota are a little small for the seats, and the Denver Center kindly obliges with boosters, which look kind of like those foamy lunchboxes. Clio and Dakota spent a lot of time getting on and off and on and off those things. We were in the front row of the balcony so they wouldn't have any tall grownups to block their 3-year old view. Most of the grown-ups around us were very nice about the presence of small children (I thought they would all be as sour as our neighbors immediately to the left), and we struck up a conversation with the people behind us. Here's a funny thing: if your party consists of one man, one woman, and various children, people will assume you are a family. Imagine the surprise of our new friends when they asked about Clio and Dakota's ages and we said they were "about 6 months apart." Oh, the confusion! Oh, the math that got done! We never did get to fill them in on the secret: act 2 began just then. Clio was completely enchanted by the whole production (Dakota was particularly interested in the dancing statues, who appeared to be naked save for silver paint), but even she threw in the towel middway through the second act. Our sourpuss neighbors did not love it when we climbed over them at the tail end of the biggest dance number of the show. but what can you do? Clio conked out in the car on the wa back to Boulder, but Dakota held on till the very end, which was at least 11 o'clock. He waved dazedly when we dropped him off at his house.

Much more recently, Clio invited me to a special Mother's Day tea at her school. All the mothers showed up around noon and spread blankets out on the lawn, only to have the wind whip up at the very last minute, sending us all indoors. We made a picnic ground of the classroom, and the children came out and recited a special mother's day wish, which I was too busy taking pictures to fully remember, but it was along the lines of "Happy mother's day."




I happened to lay out our blanket around the corner in the classroom, and Clio was worried at first when she didn't see me (seeing that searching look on her face was enough to make me resolve to always show up if I say I'm going to, always), but we settled into a lovely lunch of roast pork, french bread, fruit yogurt, olives, and the tea and scones her class had made for the occasion. They also made us giant silhouettes, and I can't wait to frame Clio's and find a place to hang it.

Because my writing class is still going, I am very aware as I write this that it is incredibly boring for a couple of reasons: because of all the telling (instead of any showing) and because of the utter lack of a "universal truth" that everyone can relate to (except, I guess, that thing about the look on a child's face when they thing you aren't going to show. But that was more of an aside than anything, certainly not the heart of the post.)

All of which makes me remember that this blog is still for the girls, too (as much as my own wants and needs have taken over), and it's okay to simply record every once in a while.

If I had more energy and creativity at this moment, this post would have been framed around Clio's current strep throat, and about the time I've gotten to spend with her and just her lately-- I would have talked about our day today, at the doctors and picking up her prescription, and the little moments we had that made me feel like a good mom (e.g. she pointed at a woman with a metal leg, as kids will do, and I took it as an opportunity, asking the woman if it would be okay for Clio to ask her about her leg. They had an excellent conversation--the woman works in a daycare where the kids call it her "robot leg"--and I got to teach a lesson). I would have referred back to these other events. I would have drawn some conclusions that would, no doubt, have been heartwarming and universal. If only I had stopped to think it through in the first place. I fonly I wasn't too lazy and tired to redo the whole damn post.