Snow Day

We woke up Thursday morning to snow, about 2 maybe 3 inches on the ground. It really was refreshing to take a walk this morning at 5:30 a.m. with the crisp air, snowy ground, and everything so quiet, that is until we came across a house where someone had built a 5 foot snowman that scared Pal so bad he wanted to go clear to the other side of the street to get away from that strange thing. By the time Selena woke up it was warming up enough that everything was a sloppy mess, but she did rejoice to see the snow. At least on Wednesday I had a few hours of excitement about Spring when I spied our first robins in our front yard. They were back today with another bird that I haven’t seen all winter, so I guess I can at least say Spring must be coming since our birds are returning.

Selena has been begging for another movie ever since she enjoyed Wizard of Oz. Since I knew though the sun was out it would not be a day for a lot of out side play with the cold and now sloppy mess, so we went to our local grocery store and proceeded to find a movie to watch. After much looking, Selena finally picked Toy Story 3. I asked her several times if she was sure, since she hasn’t watched the first two movies, but she insisted this was the movie she wanted. Finally I gave in and we brought it home and after lunch we sat down to watch it.

At first it was a little confusing because we have not seen the first two movies, so Selena kept asking who the characters were. I had to keep telling her to just watch, that I was sure we would find out as the movie went on. I sure didn’t know who all the characters were, one reason I would have preferred to see if we could get the other two before watching this one. Selena however really enjoyed the movie and made it a little over half way through it before we needed to take a break. I tried to get her to lay down and take just a little nap, but after a half hour of quiet play she decided it was time to watch the rest of the movie.

She turned around after the end of the movie and asked me if we could take the toys that she has outgrown and find another child to play with play with them, so they would have a good home. I was very impressed with the fact that she picked up on the fact that while the boy had grown and was heading off to college, he chose instead of storing the toys away in the attic, to find them a good home with a little girl who he knew would enjoy playing with them. Who says our children can’t learn some great character lessons from movies? I guess now we are off to find a small child within our community who will enjoy the toys that Selena doesn’t play with anymore. Either that or I will be explaining how Goodwill can do this for us.

Come evening as I busied myself in the kitchen things seemed so quiet other then voices of delight coming from the living room. I thought to myself, this is the way things always sounded before. I got a lot of needed extra cleaning done in the kitchen that evening. Time for bed came and Selena jumped down to pick up all her toys and went to bed one happy little girl. Later Papa turned and informed me, “You know you were making a good point that I ignored, it truly does take a lot less energy to sit here and enjoy watching Selena play, and joining in with her a bit then it does to keep asking her not to drag toys out or to ride her constantly. She even enjoyed watching me shaving and I found myself answering all her questions and even giving her some shaving cream to play with.” This time has not only been a chance for Selena to calm down a bit, but a time for Papa and myself to realize that we are Selena’s everything, we always have devoted so much time into her, and she does depend on us to continue to feed into her play and learning. Papa and I discussed yet, again what it truly means to pick your battles. I know he comes home from work tired, and things are stressful at work right now for him, however I do believe if he learns to check these things at the door, and absorb himself into the delightfulness that Selena can bring him the better he is going to feel and just maybe his high blood pressure will begin to drop a bit too.