Instant Gratification

The Sickness is upon us.
A stomach bug, head cold and strep throat swept through our house over the last 5 days.
First hit was Walks With Purpose, then D, then GoGo and finally, Mom.
There is only so much vomit a person can clean up and not actually get sick as well.

Hopefully everyone is on the mend.
Beautiful weather is here this week and I hate for us to be inside breathing each others's cooties, instead of running through the leaves.

But tending to little people when they are ill leads to instant gratification, in a weird way.  We snuggle, I dole out meds, we watch cartoons and eat noodles in our jammies.  Voila!  Everything is better.

Many days as a parent I wonder if what I'm telling them, showing them, etc is sinking in at all.  It may be another few years before I see the fruit of all this labor.
Sure, there are lots of moments with spontaneous hugs, smiles, hand-drawn pictures and such.
When Walks With Purpose says "Awww...poor Dommie" because he is sick, when I see D congratulate GoGo on something at school, when I hear GoGo talking about her great her big bro' is to her friends...then I know I'm doing something a little bit right.   I'm raising empathetic, family-first people here.

But the big stuff may not reveal itself for quite a while.  The choices they will have to make daily as they get older, when it really counts.  Decisions that will affect the rest of their lives - friends, college, lifestyle.  I can only hope all my "nagging" about choices and consequences will have sunk in by then.  So no instant gratification - just a wait and see.

Sick, but still cute.

I know, right??  She thinks anytime I get my camera out, we're doing a "shoot".

Love that she is managing it all - driving, sippy cup and her baby.  

Also, GoGo was awarded the Star Student for her class last week - so proud.
Her teacher noted "Margot is always considerate and kind to her classmates".
Her teacher let her call me from school and tell me which I thought was way cool.  So did GoGo.
D congratulated her and it sounded sincere.
Walks With Purpose gave her a big hug.

A little bit of instant gratification...love these guys.