Sunday, May 1, 2016

There once was a princess....

Me:  There once was a princess named....
Lilli: Princess Lilli!


I don't know how many times we did this as I would make up bedtime stories for her.  Would would snuggle in her bed and come up with journeys that Princess Lilli would take; visiting the stars, picking flowers for the Queen, pushing her brother, Prince Austin, in a puddle (Okay...that was more of a learning after the fact story.)  I always knew how to make her smile, to pick her up when she fell down and tell her that the boo-boo would be better by the time she was married.  I had it down pat.


Things (obviously) have not been awesome lately and it's been harder to get that smile back.  Lots of tears, lots of door slamming, lots of my shaking my head and wondering if this was what I had to look forward to for the next 8 years or so.

This was his weekend with the kids and since I had to "call-in" on Friday night because of the swelling in my foot and someone refusing to bring them to me....and Lilli was distressed that we weren't going to see each other for 4 days.  And, as I posted on my Facebook page earlier, she WANTED to go to church.  What?!?!?!

I picked her up and she was grinning ear to ear as she stood in the garage waiting for me to pull up.  It was just her.  No sister.  No brother.

Just her.

Confession:  Lilli, Abbi, and I have been going to South Park Church in Park Ridge.  The kids are very engaged and involved with their youth program called Echo.  I wish I could watch the kids; Lilli has never been so excited about going to church before.

So, she went to the Children's Service and I went to the Main Service.  And when I went to pick her up, she was chatting and giggling with the other girls in her group and my heart was happy....

I needed to go to get some groceries, texted him and got "permission to use some of his weekend time".  We drove through and got some breakfast and headed to Aldi.  She danced across the parking lot with a quarter and grinned as she was able to get the cart without having anyone pulling at her that they wanted to do it.  We shopped; my job was to just use the cart as my cane and she would get everything for the cart.

And she was still smiling.  Big, happy, ear to ear smiles.  And was giddy beyond belief.  She hopped around like a bunny (literally) and pretended that she was walking into the doors of the refrigerator.  She used a box that I picked out to hold our food as a "helmet".  Seriously, I couldn't stop laughing and smiling.  Like I haven't done in forever.

My Lilli, who I used to make smile and laugh, was making me do the same.  After weeks of being stuck on my couch and overthinking my whole life and existence, this was what I was missing to get my head straight.  A few hours of me and my first born was all I needed to center and remind myself why I should get out of bed every day.




"We had a great day
It was a super way
To spend some time together"

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