Things That Make Me Happy

Thinking of things that make me happy is like reading myself a bedtime story.

Off the top of my head:

-The sun is out and the birds are singing

-I still have a job

-I’m an introvert and most of my friendships are long-distance ones anyway

-I’m happy I managed to buy my kids new outdoors gear for spring just before social distancing started, since their old clothes and shoes were way too small

-I also happened to buy headphones for myself, what a stroke of luck. I was happy to discover Stranger Things wearing my new headphones, at night when the house was quiet

-My sweet little boys are now hugging each other more and showing empathy – last week, when one of them had a tummy bug, the other one brought him toys and tucked him in for a nap, stroking his hair

-The boys have learned to play together nicely (they are almost three now and nearly a meter tall)

-They are quite chatty and love singing

Now, this chatty point needs a whole chapter of its own in my bedtime story.

Since my blog is anonymous, let’s call my boys Rock Star 1 and Rock Star 2, nicknames given to them by Manja actually. For short, R and S.

Fragments of moments and chattiness

Outside our apartment building, there’s a terrace with tables and chairs. One day, R went and sat in a chair by the table and – in front of all the other kids and parents playing in the backyard – yelled at the top of his lungs,

R: “MONKEEEEEY, dinner time!!!”

I felt eyebrows rise. I swear he hasn’t learned that at home!

 

Hubby discovered one of our boys standing by our front door today.

Hubby: “What are you doing there?”

S: “I’m waiting for the tooth fairy.”

 

Whenever I address R with both boys in the room, S says, “I’m actually S, R is over there”

Yes, I know! I’m your mum, I can tell you two apart!

 

R slept badly. In the morning, I asked him what he’d dreamt of at night since he’d obviously had nightmares.

He replied, “Commercials.”

 

Quite often, S gets into storytelling mode and starts explaining a real-life event, sometimes from long ago. His eyes wonder upwards and his cute cherub cheeks get all puffed, and he adds words like “but” and “so” in funny places, yet telling the story with perfect clarity.

One such story is of the time a ladybug landed on his brother’s hand last summer. Their dad was there but I wasn’t, and that detail is always added to the story. And then the ladybug flew away.

Other things that have made me smile during the past week or so:

-The kids’ musical playschool teacher made a long video for all the kids to watch during the epidemic, with familiar songs. At the end of the video, she sang each kid’s name, and my boys are always so pleased to hear their names as part of the performance.

-There’s a “find the teddy” movement to give small wanderers and rock stars something to look at outside, now that their daily routines have been disrupted and they don’t have a clear idea of why they aren’t at daycare or why grandma isn’t coming over to say hi.

So today, we were returning from the playground and a woman opened a closed knitting shop’s door and waved at us frantically from a distance. As we got closer, she yelled “teddy bear!” and pointed to her right, closing the door and retreating inside. And then we saw it, a cute brown teddy posing in the shop’s window, waving at us. We stood there a while, the boys waving back at the teddy, delighted.

I don’t know what tomorrow will bring but we survived today and now it’s time for bed. Good night! Let’s be randomly kind tomorrow.