Two gifts

It's a simple thing, holding your pencil or learning how to hold your pencil. But, it's so difficult to teach Ali how to do it correctly. I don't want her to practice doing it the wrong way, but I also don't want to be that nagging mom. Today, as we worked on some of our "homeschooling" books, I kept reminding her to tuck her thumb in. I say things like, "Ali, don't forget about your thumb, honey." She kept forgetting. I even thought of a cute way to say it, so it wouldn't annoy her as much. I said, "Trap it, Ali." Well, it didn't work. After many attempts on my end to help her hold her pencil correctly. She looked up at me and said, "Mommy, why do you keep on saying that?!" At that moment I knew I had crossed the line and I was being given a gift. A window into the future. Teenage years. This is what I was going to get more of down the line. She sighed here and there while I tried hard to remind her nicely, but it was too late. I told her that I didn't want her to practice holding her pencil the wrong way because then it would be harder to fix later. Like that made any sense to a three year old!

Later that same day, we were sitting on the couch and she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I have something I want to say to you." "OK, " I said. She leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Mommy, I love you so very much." I smiled the biggest smile in a very long time. I said, "I love you so very much, Ali. You made mommy so happy." Then I gave her a kiss. She then said it back to me with two kisses and I did it with three. And so on and so forth. These moments are so beautiful. I wanted to write it down before I forgot to stop and treasure this gift.