There are so many golden, melt-your-heart moments this summer that make me love the threes. I find the kids snuggling together in bed, or pretending to put the other to bed (I'm honestly not as mean at bedtime as they are while playing bedtime!), or even just reading together in their rooms. They're so able to occupy themselves now that it's easy to do the dishes or check facebook while they're playing together. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not leaving them unattended for large amounts of time (see this post). However, enough time to use the bathroom has been the blessing that this summer has over last. It's been a beautiful thing.
Yesterday morning caught me by surprise. First, let me say that I was in the same room with the children, and I was simply reading through some of the old emails from our internet-less time in Spain. I remember thinking, "Wow. They play so well together now." From the corner I my eye, I thought I spied B swatting M on the arm. Hopping up to hand out the well-deserved time out, I realized that I misunderstood the entire context of what was happening. They weren't, as I thought, playing with matchbox cars on their broken parking garage. B wasn't beating on his sister. Instead, they were dumping baby powder all over it and sliding their hands all through it.
I gasped. It reminded me of a story my mother tells about my cousin Jessica and me, a jar of Vaseline, a "nap" and a mess. It also made me thankful that it was only vacuumable baby powder!
