Flowers for Mommy

Do your children often have spontaneous acts of parent love ? Do you encourage your children to express their love ? Do you often express your love for your children ? When was the last time your children did something spontaneous for you ? How do you feel when they express themselves ? Hod do they show their love ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

"Papi, I want the watercolors!", asked the Little Girl.
"Why Little Girl?", asked Papi.
"I want to paint Mami, Papi and me".
"I like your paintings , they are getting better and better everyday", encouraged Papi.
"I also want paper, I want this white cards".
"And why is that ?", asked Papi.

"I want to make invitations for a party", answered the Little Girl.
"What party ?"
"A birthday party!", said the Little Girl.
"Whose birthday ?", asked Papi.
"Mami's birthday!"
"It is still a while for Mami's birthday."
"Let's take these flowers for Mami, she can smell the flowers and wait for the birthday!", suggested the Little Girl.
"That is a good idea, let's do that, let's take these flowers for Mami!".

Wake Up

How difficult is it for your kids to wake up ? Do you use an alarm clock ? Do you wake them up yourself ? How do you wake them up ? Are they grumpy ? Are they with energy ? Do they jump out of bed or drag themselves to the breakfast table ? tell me your story, here is mine...

The alarm clock rings. Papi is the first to get up. He gets up and soon after we can listen to the coffee machine. The Little Girl as transformed the coffee machine noise into her personal wake up call.

But today the sound was different, and the Little Girl woke up because she didn't hear the coffee machine noise.
"Papi, Papi ?", the Little Girl got out of bed to check the different routine today.
The Little Girl went to the kitchen and found Papi trying to figure out how the electric kettle worked.
"Papi, what are you doing ?", asked the Little Girl.
"Tea, or at least trying to, do you want tea or milk Little Girl ?"
"Beehhhh, I don't like tea, I want cocoa milk!", answered the Little Girl.
"Let's get the chocolate for the milk..."
Papi and the Little Girl prepared the breakfast, the Little Girl even put butter on the toast.
Then she saw something different, Papi was putting everything in a tray with a beautiful red rose. But he did not take the tray to the dinner room, he went back to the bedroom.
The breakfast was for Mami.
"Happy Birthday Mami!"

First Day

The Little Girl went to bed afraid.
Papi said it was the last day of the year.
After she sleeps we would have a new year, a whole new year to fill with many happy days.
What is it like for a year to end ?
The Little Girl was afraid. She did not like this thing of no more days in the year. The last day of the year was really scared.
It was difficult to sleep today. Many noises outside, many explosions. The sky was beautiful, with all the fireworks, lots of colors and lights, and everybody seemed to be very happy. Were all the grown-ups crazy? Was the Little Girl the only one afraid of the year ending?
The Little Girl tried to be awake for as long as she could, the noises were helping her stay wake. But she was tired, she could not continue awake much more. Little by little the Little Girl fell asleep.

- Good Morning Little Girl.
It was Papi's voice. The Little Girl woke up with a jump, and immediately hugged Papi.
- Papi the year did not finish.
The Little Girl was happy, everything seemed to be the same, there was no reason to be afraid.
- This is a New Year Little Girl, welcome to the New Year, I have something special for you today.
Papi gave the Little Girl a big wall calendar.
- My Little Girl, this is a calendar, it is for the New Year. See this little box ?
- Yes Papi, what is the little box ?
- This box is your birthday. When we are in that box you will become 5 years old, This little box here in the beginning is Today. Today is the first day on the New Year.
- Wow.
The Little Girl was amazed with what she was learning.
- With this big pen, everyday we wake up we mark a little box, when we marked all the little boxes until this special birthday box it means it is your birthday party.
- Wow, and on that day we are going to Mickey's house? I want to see Peter Pan, Mickey, Buzz, Woody.
- Yes Little Girl, we will go and see Mickey when it's your birthday party.

The Yellow Balloon

- Papi!

Happiness. I always get a rush of pure happiness when this simple word is followed by this little being with the big bright eyes.

- Mommy?

- Mommy could not come today.

- Why?

- Mommy had to go to the doctor.

- Why?

- Mommy is ill.

- Why?

- Come, let's change your shoes, we are going home now.

I always wonder when should I stop the why train. The Little Girl always manages to get to places I don't know how to answer.

- Papi?

- Yes?

- Can I go in the yellow balloon?

- Of course!

- Yeah! I am going in the yellow balloon. I am going in the yellow balloon.

Another rush. I have truly been blessed everyday for the last 4 years. I let myself watch the Little Girl as she jumped around, and has she jumped around she wanted to make sure every kid knew that she was going home in the yellow balloon.

We pulled the yellow balloon from the locker, it was still full of air, floating against the locker's ceiling. It was there as if by magic knowing of this one more mission, to take the Little Girl home safely.

I dressed her up with the pink water suit and the green gummy boots. It's raining outside and we will not be able to go to the playground. I didn't have a backup plan, would have to rely on my improvisation for the long hours Mommy would be undergoing the  exams.

On the way out, the Little Girl passed by her friend Bella. They talked very happily in their very unique magical language to which grownups are not invited. I did get the words yellow and balloon, I saw the Little Girl's excitement, and I got a feeling for Bella wanting to come with the Little Girl.

Rain. Still hasn't stopped raining for the last 2 weeks, sunshine would surely be welcomed by us. As we got out I could hear the sound of a little trampoline, almost as high as a musical high pitched drum. It was the sound of raindrops on the yellow balloon. The yellow balloon was the Little Girl’s umbrella.

The yellow balloon looked like a small private sun very bright, making an high contrast with the pink water suit. The yellow balloon was glowing privately for the Little Girl as if responding to her smile. The Little Girl’s smile became wider and the balloon intensified it’s glow.

The yellow balloon seemed to be growing, getting bigger and bigger, the raindrops getting louder and louder drumming on the yellow balloon. Suddenly the yellow balloon was covering the sky above me, and the Little GIrl was holding to the yellow balloon.

The yellow balloon was moving upwards, and the Little Girl as well. I held on to the Little Girl's legs as the yellow balloon pulled the Little Girl into the sky. I got nervous, afraid of the yellow balloon taking my Little Girl. But the Little Girl felt my fear and smiled back at me.

- Papi! We are flying, we are flying.

Somehow, knowing this bigger than life experience seemed usual to the Little GIrl, I relaxed a bit. The Little Girl was feeling my restlessness.

- Papi! We are going home in the yellow balloon.

- We sure are Little Girl. Put your legs tightly around my shoulders.

The Little GIrl was holding tight, I surely felt the Little Girl happy to be going home in the yellow balloon with her father.

- Papi, I don’t want to go to Neverland and the pirates. I want to go with Peter Pan when I am like this.

She showed me her stretched hands with the ten fingers up. Who is holding the balloon ? The Fox in purple superhero costume was holding the balloon in one hand and the Little Girl on the other. Good thing we discovered the Fox, it used to protect the Little Girl from bad dreams and from the darkness. Always good to have it around.

We passed the green gardens on the way home. Our neighbors looking at us and waving, they always exchanged accomplice smiles with the Little GIrl. She knew all of them.

- Hello Little Girl! What a beautiful yellow balloon you have there.

The Little Girl would just smile, giggle and look back.

- Hello Little GIrl! Papa came to pick you up today.

And the Little Girl would smile, laugh and wave back. She stretched her arms, mimicking a pink plane. Looked like the Fox was riding the plane and holding the yellow balloon. The Fox smiled back at me, I could read in it's eyes that it would always be there to protect the Little GIrl.

We saw the cars passing on the street, the other kids with their parents looking from the windows at the Little GIrl. I believe they all wanted to be in the Little GIrl’s place. The Little GIrl was flying home in the yellow balloon.

Bella waved her little arm from the window of the small blue car.

- Little Girl! You are flying in the yellow balloon!

The Little Girl stretched her arms in the direction of Bella, and showed the full ten finger from both hands.

- Yes, I am flying, and when I am like this, I am going to fly with Peter Pan to Neverland and the Pirates.

- Bye bye Little Girl!

We saw Bella move away waving her little arm from the window of the small blue car. The small blue car became smaller as it moved away from us.

We could see the clouds above us, the clouds looked familiar. I could see Rapid the rabbit. I could see Hearty the lion. I could see Uli the owl. I could see Mickey Mouse. And the Little Girl knew all the clouds. She waved at the clouds telling me excited the names of all of them as we flew by.

We passed by the retirement home. The woman with fluffy white hair and round cheeks looked and smiled at the Little Girl. The woman with the silver hair and long nose looked at the Little Girl in disapproval. The lady in blue with the big round glasses clapped her hands as we passed by.

- Papi! Fast, Papi, fast Papi!

The Little Girl didn't want to be too long there. She saw the old bald man in black holding the big stick. He’s nose was reminded us of an eagle. His eyes were red and we could see the lasers coming out. If the lasers pierced the balloon we would be in danger. I moved frantically my legs as if I was swimming away from of the crocodile, and we moved as fast as we could increasing our distance from the old bald man in black.

We could see the stone fountain in front of the house. We were getting closer to safety. But the Little Girl didn't want to go into the house yet. She wanted to talk with all the stones in the fountain. So she approached the stones. It had stopped raining. The sky was clear now, the clouds had changed color from grey to white.

I looked at her, as she gently placed her green gummy books on top of the first stone. She was holding the yellow balloon tight in her hand. She touched the stone with the other hand, and the black stone turned white. She jumped from one stone to the next circling the fountain of the big stones. With each step of the green gummy boots the stones turned to white.

As she jumped around the big stones fountain, the stones made all the fountain look like a circular piano, with the stones in place of the keys in the huge piano keyboard. In my mind I could listen to the tune. She was playing happy birthday as she jumped from stone to stone, as she pressed each big key.