It reached 51 degrees today…nice, sunny, and an almost-warm kind of feeling. It was wonderful!
And yes, I do realize that not more than a month ago I was cheering on the snow as it fell.
But it’s 14 days until spring — and that realization plus the nice weather now after so many days of…of…not niceness — has made me want to cheer on the sun, the spring, and the summer!
Bring it on!
When I do get the chance to take a drive — a REAL drive (long, aimless, not your normal “Sunday drive”) — I often think about what the land would look like without all the buildings, roads, utility poles…you get the picture. Without the touch of people upon it.
Today was one of those days, of course. It was a wonderful 10 hours of driving. I saw Vasquez Rocks first (see post before this one) and the just drove north into the mountains. After drinking in the mountains I drove through a huge valley for a while before hitting mountains again and heading back to L.A. All in all an outstanding day – even had a chance to see a movie!
Now…if I can just get some solid sleep on my red-eye flight, I’ll be in great shape for heading straight vack to work when I land!
So after a rough evening (“after” for me, Sarah is still with Susan) and while I’m waiting for Sarah to come to bed, I’m thinking about the many things that cause those meltdowns in our children. Mine had multiple meltdowns tonight — they’re usually okay, but meltdowns do happen occasionally. And when I say meltdown, I mean any combination of crying, defiance, screaming, running, pulling, rolling, hitting, refuse-to-go-to-bed…you get my drift.
I think that kids don’t quite understand what is going on around them — but I firmly believe that they *absorb* the emotion from around them. So, for example, if there is the feeling of anger around them — even unspoken — the child can take that anger on. They’re not equipped to deal with it in any way other than crying or becoming “angry” or something similar themselves. Not to say this always happens, but I really think it can. I also happen to believe that my children got my sense of empathy. (Believe it or not, I do get emotional…just stays inside until I feel it is okay to let go of it. But I do cry pretty easily for a “guy”…but there’s nothing wrong with it!
So…when you combine the absorption of emotions with a lot of travelling, late hours, short/no naps, and simply not being at home, that can make for a fun evening.
But then you sit back and watch them sleep afterwards (if you’re not already deep asleep yourself) and smile because you love them.