Easter Morning RAY-RAYS

Hi!

Did you have a Happy Easter? (Eleanor, did you have a good Passover?  I never know if it should be a Happy Passover or just a Good one.  I know the story so I generally opt for Good over Happy but if I'm wrong, correct me, please.)

We did.

It was quiet, Chris was on-call with the hospital so we were home by ourselves all weekend.  It was also our conference weekend so I made some wheat cinnamon rolls and we lounged around listening to the general authorities speak.  Well, I listened.  The Boy napped or colored or played and Chris dozed through most of it.  He's not feeling so hot lately.

And then, what do you know?  Easter dawned.  It was sunny and cool with the sure knowledge of heating up as the day goes on.  I had made the Boy an Easter basket, a little blue and white striped crocheted number and filled it with yellow shredded paper and plastic Easter eggs full of his favorite snackies--different cereals and his beloved raisins.

Which brings me to my point.  I'm not sure if he just came here like this, or if it's something in his genetic make up, or if I did something right somewhere back in the cloudy beginning of his infancy that I can no longer remember, but I have the sweetest child known to man.

He's starting to talk more, and he has his own words for things.  Most of the time it's vaguely related to that actual word for things, for example, when he says BEEE  he really means BEANS.  And when he asks for RAY-RAYS, with a big smile and squinty eyes, you know he wants more raisins.  It's not an exclamation point time of request, it's soft and sweet and chewy and filled with adoration for those shriveled little would-be fruits.  He absolutely LOVES them.  (This is all a complete mystery to me because I HATE raisins, but I keep them around and dole them out like crack to my child because, lo, he loves them with a love that will not end.)

Anyway, bringing this back to our sunny and deliciously cool Easter morning.  He had popped open and discovered all of his Easter treats and they were all combined in a snack cup with a LID so that I didn't end up running mad from Easter Treats trailed through the apartment.  We were happily sitting in our "sun room" watching the birds and eating our breakfast (mine was leftover cinnamon roll and his was his Snack Cup of Goodness), and I asked him, you know--casually, if Leike (our beloved and AGED cat) would like some raisins.  Now, the Boy loves his RAY-RAYS so much that to share them is a difficult thing.  But he stood up and toddled over to her cat post where she sat surveying her vast kingdom and principalities and he stretched up on his tippy-toes, reached his hand with his beloved RAY-RAYS up to Leike and smiled and said:

"RAY-RAYS?"

Leike passed on the RAY-RAYS.  But she enjoyed watching him all morning long.  As did I.  I am humbled by how often he teaches me.  How to have fun, how to let go, how to laugh at myself and the silliness of life, how to sit and enjoy a quiet morning rather than hurrying to get stuff done.  And most of all he teaches me the sweetness of simple things.

Now.  You go and spread your own RAY-RAYS.