The Kids

My daughter is on her way to New Mexico as of yesterday. She stayed over night here on Wednesday and we had a very quiet evening with her playing The Sims2 on the computer and me reading on the couch. We shared some good giggles as we went to Wal-Mart late that night and bought her road trip snacks.

Thursday I spent the day sweating and driving. I dropped my daughter off at my brother's house and spent a little time visiting with my sister-in-law while there. Her, my niece, my brother and my daughter make a yearly road trip. I think they enjoyed New Mexico so much last year, they decided to do it again this year. I'm jealous of the weather they will get to be in. The high temperature where they are going was 67 degrees. That, and the horse back riding, mountain biking, rafting and other various activities they have planned. My sister-in-law went and bought my daughter a mountain bike for this trip. They should have an exceptional time.

Thursday evening I took a shower to wash off the 4 gallons of sweat that had made it's way out of my body, and then it was off to see my son's new apartment, but only after an hour long panic attack. You see... I have this slight phobia of driving to places that I've never driven before. It used to be be a lot worse. Back in the day, I would not have even considered driving to where my son lives now. (I plan to post more about this adventure later) But after all the tears, I got on the road anyway and made it to his house with no problems. We had a nice dinner and I got to see the fancy new apartment where he lives.

I had a weird experience with both of my kids yesterday. With my daughter, it was seeing her with a blanket wrapped around herself as she played on the computer. With my son, it was seeing him lay on the floor of his apartment with his feet up by the chair where his girlfriend was sitting. As I watched both of them, each without knowing that their momma was REALLY watching them, they both did their "thing" that they would do when they were very little.

My son's "thing": When he was little, my son's thing was to approach me or my mother, lay on the floor and stick his feet on our laps, or if we were standing, in the air, so we would scratch his feet. This would progress to scratching his arms, hands, legs and back. I would tell my son that whoever he married, they would have their work cut out for them with all the scratching. His girlfriend is NOT happy with me right now.

My daughter's "thing": My daughter was a blanket girl, more commonly known around our house as a bankey. But not just ANY bankey. They had to be the kind that had the real soft, often silky type border sewn around the edges. When she was not old enough to have any type of hand eye coordination, maybe a month old, she would roll up the corners of these blankets just so and she would tickle her nose. This was often combined with thumb sucking but that started a few months after.

I watched yesterday as my daughter sat at my computer, wrapped in the blanket, take a corner of that blanket and rub it against her cheek. It was a simple gesture and it did not involve any thumb sucking. But for me, memories of the child that was now 21 came flooding back and I remembered the girl that I would kiss at night before I left for work in her girl's bed... thumb in mouth, bankey in hand. And echoes from across the room where my son, who is now 23, lay, Big Bear tucked in next to him whispering, "scratch my feet scratch my back scratch my hands" in a cadence that only a 5 year old can achieve.

For you young mothers out there just starting out... these are the things that you will carry with you once your children are grown. It is the most heart warming, happy, wonderful thing to remember when you are looking at your adult child.

My kids are totally embarrassed when I openly talk about them when they were young like this. I do not understand why, but I do my best to try and not mortify them. This post, I couldn't help. Yesterday was one of the most wonderful days I have ever had, in part because of these early memories of my children... when I was the age they are right now. When or if they have children of their own, I'm sure they then will understand where I'm coming from and hopefully will no longer be embarrassed that they were normal, loving, wonderful kids who grew up too fast and became exceptional, normal, loving adults.

Thank you, my beautiful children. You are more precious to me than anything else in this world and you always will be.

Big Bear, A Tickle Bankey, And Libertine