The best days...

...Start with a good laugh,cold hands and an insult from the most adorable four year old on the planet.

I was awake, but still had my eyes closed when Parker came bouncing in the room this morning. He jumped on the bed, said "I loooooove you soooooo much" and then put his freezing cold hands on my cheeks. I let out some sort of yelp, you know the kind where you are completely not expecting that sort of jolt? He laughed that deep, Parker belly laugh that causes the earth to laugh along.

Next, he squirms his way under my fuzzy blanket because he wants to cuddle a bit. Bliss. All is (mostly) quiet. Bigger kids are spending a bit of time with Kev as he prepares for work. Aaron is at the table drawing an invention as he does almost every morning. A few moments when it's just me and my Punky. How has this boy suddenly become so grown up? He'll be five soon!? I want these moments to last forever!

We are sharing the pillow now. Our faces a couple of inches apart. He's staring at me, trying to make me laugh. I'm determined to make him laugh first.

I lose.

Every time.

Our giggles erupt into full out laughter.

Slowly it subsides.

Silence again.

Then it happens.

My cue that it is time to let the moment go.

It's time to take a deep breath. Let feet hit the floor.

That short, peaceful moment of silence when all is right with the world ends abruptly. He leans in close for a kiss. Instead, he sniffs and says "Um, you smell like stinky marshmellows."

Before I can even respond he's gone. Laughing and bouncing to go tell his daddy that mommy is finally getting out of bed.

I head straight for the shower, where the hot water will wake my senses enough to realize he has never even been near a marshmellow, how does he know what they smell like??!

It might be rainy and dreary, but it will be a bright, sunshiney day here in Rebel-land. Like any day we'll have *those* moments where life is hard. We'll weather them just as we always seem to do. Together. Hopefully with more laughter than tears this time around.



This picture was taken a couple of days ago. You can't tell, but he was jumping on the trampoline, he was a few inches in the air here. He asked me to turn up the heat because he was cold. I told him to put on something warmer than just a pull-up and a blanket draped on his shoulders. He came back a few minutes later with this warmer, bigger blanket. Apparently it was his chosen "outfit" for the day.