Their Golden Moment

I had both of my kids with me at lunchtime on a weekday a few weeks ago for a rare outing.

They were going to the doctor’s office for check ups, so Kai and I picked up Little D at school and headed over around noon.

I didn’t think much of it when I had scheduled it — just checked my work calendar for the day for conflicts, arranged timing with my mom who watches Kai on Wednesdays, planned to get Little D right after she would have finished lunch with her classmates so I wouldn’t have to worry about feeding her.

We got in the car and they began to banter back and forth. Giggling, singing, talking, full of life. There was no whining. There was no arguing. There were no exhausted faces, barely offering up one-word answers to my questions. There was dialogue and jokes and animated descriptions of everything we saw zoom past the car windows. There was sharing and holding hands and singing along to the radio at the top of their little lungs.

And I slowly realized that I never really see my kids mid-day during the week. This is amazing. This time. This energy level. This happiness.

Yes, of course I see them mid-day on the weekends but they are usually running ragged by then from a morning of activities and/or not enough snacks and they have already spent hours together which means they are sick of each other. And me.

They are good in the mornings, but usually still sleepy from the night before and hungry and in a rush to get out the door.

After school is always tough – they have no energy, there is homework and activities to contend with, lots of fighting over toys.

And well, we all know what the witching hour is all about.

Even bedtime is anything but soothing most days with fights over the bath, which pajamas to wear, who is reading what story, etc.

This was their golden moment.

12:00pm on a Wednesday. Bellies were full, brains were energized and fresh, bodies weren’t exhausted yet, and they were thrilled to see each other.

And suddenly, it became my golden moment as well.