I haven't been home much this past week, so I really didn't see the kids or Brian too much. This weekend, we all just hung around the house, tried to get some much needed yard work and house work done and took a family trip running errands. This is not something we typically do. Brian hates to shop and quite frankly I like to get in and get out so its easier for me to go alone or just with one of the kids. While we were shopping, we found this:
We originally wanted a bistro set but this was on clearance.
Anyway, Liv helped Brian and I carry it out, put it together and put the pillows on it. My daughter and I sat on the love seat and hung out and talked for a while. Olivia is eight years old now. She's always been very intelligent, but she is now becoming thoughtful, insightful and appreciative of the things and people around her. I loved listening to her. She talked about school, her friends, our upcoming summer plans and generally just filled me in on how life was going for her. It sometimes hurts my heart to think of how fast the girls are growing up. I miss my time with them when I'm in school and even though it's only two evenings a week and I'm home by 9:00 to see them before they go to sleep, it just seems like I never see them. That's why it was so nice to just stop and sit there with Liv, relax and talk about nothing and everything. I suddenly realized that she's becoming her own person now. She has her own opinions, her own interests. As I listened to her I thought to myself - My God - you are incredible. You are suddenly so grown up - when did that happen? But what really made me appreciate how amazing she is was when she looked up at the sky and said...
"Mom - look at the clouds....it looks like they were painted by Vincent Van Gogh. Can you see the brush strokes?"
Wow, actually, I do. Thank you baby girl, for making me stop and appreciate the clouds..and you.
2 comments:
You forgot to mention our encounter with Vincent Van Gogh while I was home last winter...
We were sitting in the living room watching television on night after Christmas, and suddenly Liv starts off on a list of facts about Van Gogh and how cool his paintings were. Then you remembered the huge (and expensive) college art texts you'd left down at Mom's place. When I brought that back up later that evening, Liv dived into them at once. (She was quite careful turning the pages, too.)
It was so exciting to see her face light up looking at the Old Masters. Like her mother, she seemed far more interested in the Renaissance and earlier, despite Buckabee's insistence that they look into some more modern stuff as well.
She floored me, though, when she started reading the introduction to one of the oversized volumes to us. A college-level text being read aloud by an eight-year-old--not something one sees everyday. I was very proud of Liv that night.
LOVE the furniture. VERY nice.
Kids say the darndest stuff? My sister's oldest daughter, Becca, just turned 9 and the thoughts and ideas she has amaze me. And I look at her and I can remember "9" and some of the thoughts and feelings I had. . . maybe that is what makes it all so surreal?
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