Heavenly day

Today I had a Heavenly day with my girls. Today was a day when it was good to be a mother and to have my two girls. Two Heavenly girls. A Heavenly Day (inspired by Patty Griffin's song "Heavenly Day" - currently on my ipod).


We started our day talking about sisters. We each shared things that we like about having sisters (I have two older sisters) and we each shared things that we found difficult. Katherine said she liked it when Caroline gave her loveys and when Caroline played with her but she thought it was hard when Caroline was mean and put her hands around her neck and pressed, at which point she demonstrated a stranglehold! I did my best not to react.  I was not aware Caroline was given to strangleholds. 


Caroline said she liked having Katherine to play with and share things with but she found it hard when Katherine wouldn't share with her. I said that I liked having sisters to play with when I was growing up but that I found it hard to be the youngest because I often felt like my sisters were bossing me around. We talked about how special it is to have sisters. And then we talked about Fighting. Squabbling. Yelling. Screaming. I told them all siblings fight and that fighting with your sibling can be good practice for working out problems you'll have in life. Then I said from now on they had to work out their own problems. They couldn't come running to me or Daddy screaming for help.


Twenty minutes later I heard high pitched screams followed by crying and feet charging across the floor downstairs. I was stepping into the shower. I held tight to my plan and had my shower. When I was done I poked my head out the bathroom door, listening for trouble but instead the girls were playing quietly in Katherine's room. As we were getting ready to leave for the Natural History Museum, Katherine showed me a bandaged toe. "Caroline bited it so she put this on."


On our drive downtown Caroline pointed out that there's a $1000 fine for littering by the side of the freeway. We discussed crimes and prison and how even kids can go to prison. Katherine wanted to know if there were any toys in kid prison and Caroline declared quite seriously that she would never steal anything like a car.


At the museum we got cheeseburgers and hot dogs from the BBQ out front and then spent an hour and twenty minutes exploring African mammals, being paleontologists, checking out the bobcat - "That cat is ADORABLE. So adorable I can't even look at it!" - and learning about California history. Katherine was particularly interested to learn that The Chumash Indians were often naked. 


When Katherine announced her heels were hurting we quickly made our exit. The ride home was event free - or should I say scream-free? - despite bad traffic.

In Africa with elephants and water buffalo for a moment

Paleontologists for ten minutes

Tonight at dinner we talked about wars. About how wer're at war now and also about wars in our history. The girls had seen various exhibits about battles at the museum and Katherine said she thought wars were bad because it wasn't good to kill people. She told us about how she had acted in a play in Kindergarten where she was a farmer and a soldier and how she had shouted: "I want my country to be free!" We talked about the American Revolution and how one of their ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence but I didn't bother to mention that the ancestor in question is the only Supreme Court Judge ever to be impeached - I figured that would be lost on them.


After dinner we played Rook. Tim and Katherine won.


A Heavenly day. Tomorrow may not be a Heavenly Day. But I had today. What a great day.