A school day. Hurry up and get out the door. The kids have been much more tired recently and harder to wake up. Not sure if it’s because their playing more or just having a harder time falling asleep now that it’s lighter later. Hurrying is a relative thing in our house. I intentionally set the alarm clocks a little earlier knowing that it’s going to take the kids a bit of extra work and snuggling to get going. Each loves their morning snuggle time. It’s only five minutes or so, but it’s their time – it often starts with a giggle, or a silly song. A little lightness and connection before we start the day’s motors racing. I feel like this time reassures them and me that whatever happens that day, that Mama loves them and will be there for them. It’s our time. As I write this I think of this time as what our time with God should be like – an enjoyable daily connection assuring us that He’s still there, loving us very much.
Realizing that I missed opportunities to connect with Ellia yesterday I seek these out today. Most of our together play focuses on the Llama. Today Elli’s name was selected from the turn can to bring home the Llama. I hadn’t realized what an honor this is. I happened to be doing some work in her classroom during snack time when the Llama’s journal was taken out of its bag and read. This Llama’s been very busy! Kids were visibly upset when their clothespin wasn’t chosen to take it home this week. Fortunately everyone will have a chance before the year is out. Elli proudly carried the Llama to the car and proceeded to talk about how she was going to take it everywhere this week and could we please go for a walk when we got home to show the Llama around? Did I have money to stop at the coffee shop and get a scone to share with him (or is it a her? Elli thinks it is a girl, although I’m sure the boys would beg to differ!)? We decided that perhaps we should create a sewing project this week making the Llama a new bag as well as its own apron, so it could cook with her. This Llama ate well. A cheese sandwich and a bowl full of grass for an afternoon snack, because Nate did not feel that a cheese sandwich was appropriate food for a Llama and it might need an afterschool snack as well!
Today was a perfect, sunny, blustery day. The perfect spring day for kites! We fitted Llama with a harness made out of ribbon, so he could fly kites with Elli. Grabbed the bag of kites, a snack, and headed up to the South lawn on campus. The kids were delighted to fly the kites. We’ve accumulated quite a collection that I believe now numbers, six. We had five with us and each kite went up at various times. Most popular were the kids’ Easter kites from last year, and my dragon from a work trip to San Diego – before kids. Yes, of all the things I could have brought back as a souvenir, I brought back a kite. It’s a beautiful silk kite with a tale of about 15 feet. It flies like a dream and was great to fly on the West Coast and then on the East. Nate and Ellia flew their kites with amazing success and surprisingly few tangles for quite a while before begging me to get out mine. There’s just something great about harnessing the wind to make a kite dance against a blue sky. The kids chattered happily as the three of us flew our kites. Each took turns with the dragon complete with dragon sounds. It really took off for Elli.
After a while they tired of the kites and sat for a snack while I worked to rig up Llama for a maiden voyage up in the sky. This was not a simple feat and the kids went off to play superheroes by themselves as I unthreaded the many tangles that adding extra weight to a kite can produce. Ellia was Super Girl although Nate informed her that she could not really be Super Girl without a proper lasso, “It’s a rope, Mama.” Elli was ok, with this assessment and happy to imagine one. While I don’t know Nate’s name his superpower was reading and the ability to sound out words. His world revolves around reading right now and he’s not afraid to attempt anything. He really is a superhero of kindergarten readers.
With about a half hours’ worth of play with the Llama, he took off. I shouted for the kids to see, and they ran excitedly over. The Llama got a solid 10 feet off the ground and was moving upward, before the wind settled down again. While I probably learned more about physics than they did, we celebrated our victory and set off to go pick Papa off from work to play a promised game of Guess Who.
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