Spider-Man

There is a lot more to this photo than I would have expected.  It was taken with my phone as I jogged down the driveway and wiggled off my work gloves (in-laws are coming home tomorrow and it would be nice to appear to have done something with the flowers while they were gone.)  While you might see a little boy flying a kite as his sister looks upward, I see a boy dancing and screaming, "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Man is on the waaaay" with delight because he got his kite to fly, and fly really really high for a really really long time.  I see the triumph of overcoming the disappointment of his previous attempt to launch.  I see pride in his accomplishment and how happy he is to have his little sister running after his kite.  He asks if I see the kite, but he's really asking, do you see me?  Do you see what I'm doing?  Do you care?  And of course, my answer is yes.  I love you so much I will touch meat with my bare hands for you, kid.

You might notice a cute little girl who loves pink and pony tails, but don't miss the fact that she put those clothes on all by herself.  Her shoes are on the right feet today, and she even had the courage to go potty outside all by herself (because peeing outside is better than peeing your pants).  While we thought Matt, who loves nothing more than an outside morning pee, would be quite proud, he was not.  Perhaps a discussion on where it's ok to pee outside and where it is not is in order.  Grass, ok.  Next to Matt's car door, not ok.  The upside: I'm no longer nervous about taking her camping.

You might also notice who's not in the photo.  There are two more and they were busy riding horse in the barn or playing with their friend or watching a volleyball game, who knows?  Keeping track of four is like listening to four songs at the same time and trying to figure out the story line of each song.  It's all a little blurry.  I claim new mom brain.

This photo contains so much more than a couple of kids having fun on a windy day.  It makes me think of the hours I worried about being too hard on them, not being hard enough, the moments I totally failed at compassion, my frustrations with them, their frustrations with me, failing at dinner, when she learned how to write the letter M, when he begged me for a book each night, when the other girls were brave enough to feed the old mare by themselves, and when we heard the first "I love you".  That's a lot of baggage for a kite to carry, but I think with Spider-Man's (and Jesus's) help, we can handle it.