10.25.2008

Our Googly Girl

Two nights ago we had popcorn. I think because my husband finds popcorn disgusting, we really don't have it very often. But, he was gone, and the little girls wanted some, so I set them up with a movie and a large bowl of it.
As they were finishing the bowl, I looked up from my laundry-folding to see Monkey D carefully picking at the kernels in the bottom of the bowl. She was very focused on what she was doing.
I went back to folding, but a couple of minutes later, she came up to me gently cupping a handful of unpopped kernels. She said, "Mom, I think you might want to put these somewhere special". I took them from her and thanked her with a big smile. She gave me a look of satisfaction and walked away.
What was she thinking? Did she think we could use them again? Did she think maybe I could plant popcorn? I'm not sure, I didn't ask her, but I thought it was such a sweet little gesture. I have them in a baggie on my dresser right now.

Yesterday, I decided the floor needed mopping. My poor husband bought me one of those awesome scrubber/suction/squeegie machines to clean wood floors, yet I still find myself doing it the old fashioned way. So with bowl of vinegar/water and cloth, I got to work on hands and knees and went to work. I'm so glad I was on my hands and knees, because I found something precious way down there at floor-level.
About a year or so ago, MD starting drawing. She learned the first initial of her name, "G", and would point to it wherever she saw it. She also loved to draw it. Once as I was walking in the hallway to my bedroom, I noticed about 15 handwritten G's penciled on the walls and baseboard. There were also about 15 tiny smiley faces. I thought it was cute that she had done that, but gave her the little lecture on not drawing on the walls, and scrubbed them all off.
But guess what I found as I was scrubbing my floors! I had missed a little G and a little smiley face from way back then. I was so happy! A year ago, I cared too much about my "newer" home and wanted those walls and baseboards clean, clean, clean. But after finding those precious little drawings on the baseboard yesterday, I was happy to leave them, and know that they will stay there as long as we are in this house.

Yesterday I looked over and saw this. I grabbed my camera and thought about how only a child would be perfectly confident and happy eating a bowl of ice cream with reindeer antlers on.

6 comments:

Jessica said...

What a little sweetheart. I love the G, the smiley, the antlers, and of course the precious popcorn kernels. All of it. Thank goodness for sweet little girls.

Leslie said...

Littel Miss Gracie always makes me smile. I love the story, it remined me of something Ira's mom did when he was little. She took large pieces of card board and lined his room with it so he would have something to draw on besides the walls. She's an artist and values creativity and she didn't want to punish him for developing that talent.

Krista said...

Oh, Gracie Girl, you get me every time. Love love love it.

Karen said...

Adorable! Your kids are so cute and sweet! Just like their mom.

Team Pettijohn said...

I love your new picture on the header...who always takes those amazing family pictures that you always have on there. I love the little drawings on the base boards, but geesh...you made me think about how badly I need to clean my house. It needs a good makeover.

Gramma Spice said...

Darling Gracie! I am having the best Tuesdays now that I get to babysit her that day. The drawings remind me of another sweet artist who left her mark forever carved in our wood banister upstairs. Rachel was so excited and happy to have moved back "home" after years away in Nebraska, that she etched a heart saying, "I love gramma and grampa". Shelli, your mortified face spoke volumes, but I was touched so deeply by that visual outpouring of her love. It's still there, and I LOVE it..glad I can still see it even though Old English polish fills in the design.