December 11, 2006

Children explore the world, you should too

The other day my son and I were in our living room, he was playing a game and I was doing homework for a class I am taking online. He stopped his game and stood in the middle of the room, waving an arm in front of him, with a slight frown on his face. He yelled "SHOO!" while he waved vigorously, interrupting my concentration and causing me to take notice of his peculiar behavior. As I was about to ask him just what he was doing, he shrilly asked me, in a slightly perplexed and yet exasperated tone "MAMA, what IS it?"

Well, I was getting a little concerned now, since I didn't actually SEE anything, so I stood up and walked around behind him to try to see from his perspective. That's when I figured out what "it" was.

I laughed as I turned to him and exclaimed "It's a sunbeam!" It was, in fact, three sunbeams with about a million motes of dust dancing in its light. They traveled the long distance from the small, high windows in our front door, angling in across the length of the living room and coming to rest out of his line of sight, on his pant leg and the floor behind him. He could see the dust, and to him it must have seemed ghostly, but he couldn't disperse it which he found slightly distressing.

His response? He looked at the ghostly light again. His gaze traveled its length to his pant leg, where he could see the bright beam come to rest. A mischievous grin spread across his little face and he said "OH! It IS a sunbeam. ... I LOVE sunbeams!" and then he proceeded to jump in and out of the sunbeams until he remembered his game and ran laughing and screaming from the room.

My lesson learned?

1) Stop to see things from your child's perspective and you will see things you couldn't see before.

2) Take the time to experience new things and explore the world with your children.

3) Don't be afraid of a few sunbeams.

Posted by lunasmom at 4:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 16, 2006

My son loves music

I was just in the car with him, coming back from the mall and I was reminded of something that happened very early this morning.

He typically awakens before anyone in the house does. He usually gets up and plays with his trains or his monster trucks at the kitchen table or on the couch. We get up shortly after, make him breakfast ,and get him ready for school.

Today I was awakened not by his usual morning noise; sometimes he comes to wake me to tell me he's hungry, usually I hear him commentating a monster truck rally in the kitchen. Today was different, however. Today he was singing a song.

I was deeply asleep when his singing awakened me. I was disoriented at first and couldn't figure out what he was singing. After a few refrains I realized he wasn't singing one of his children's songs, he was singing a song that I play on my CD player in the car. I play it often as part of a mix that I like, I find the lyrics comforting and I always sing along.

The song goes like this:

Another child is born
Another race is won
Another dream is shattered
Another day has begun

This world is still afloat
No not in Noah's boat
We've only lost the vision
Of the stars we're meant to be

Another broken heart
Another lesson learnt
Another harvest eaten
Another night is gone
A new day's begun
Even your dreams they can be real

This world is still afloat
No not in Noah's boat
We've only lost the vision
Of the stars we're meant to be

This world is still afloat
No not in Noah's boat
We've only lost the vision
Of the stars we're meant to be

This final verse is the one that he was singing when I awoke this morning. There is something nice about waking up to a new day with a three year old singing this at the top of his lungs:

This world is full of love
We still have hope
This world is full of love
We still have hope
This world is full of love
We still have hope
This world is full of love
We still have hope
This world is full of love
We still have hope
This world is full of love
We still have hope

It's a Zero 7 song, called "This World." He likes it when I play it loud, and for him, I oblige. Some days it's tough to remember the good that surrounds us and the potential for love and hope in our lives. Today, I remembered.

Posted by lunasmom at 10:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack