Lessons from Kids

I'm sitting on the front steps of a driveway covered in chalk, watching kids covered in even more chalk. I can't remember what it's like to be their age: spending an entire day playing, riding their trikes back and forth and back again, deciding to roll their tractors and Danny Dozer in the dirt, then getting back on their trikes for more rides of exhilaration. 

I remember bikes. I remember my tricycle--it was purple, white, and red. I remember all the games we made up in the front yard: roasting our dumplings (folded leaves stuck on a twig) as we camped; running up and down the driveway while playing Red Light, Green Light; Mother May I, or 1-2-3-Stop (all variations of the same game, right?); or hiding in the same bushes for yet another round of hide-and-seek (really, there are only so many hiding spots in front of two houses).


These two energetic boys (M, age 4, and E, age 2) that I'm babysitting are not just making me remember my life twenty years ago (well, what little I can remember, but watching them live their lives of pure play while learning to share, use their manners, and play nicely is teaching me some lessons...

Life is messy.
Or perhaps even more appropriately, life is not meant to be clean. Just yesterday, minutes before his mom pulled up in the driveway, M decided that he wanted to lay down in the dirt. No reason, not for play, not for pretend. He just wanted to lay in the dirt, both sides of his cheek. And today they're playing with chalk: 'painting' their trikes with them, crushing them with their plastic tires, and spreading the color everywhere. This also means they're covered in chalk, from their bare feet and shorts to their t-shirts and face.

Mealtime is always a mess. E does not let anyone feed him, but he also doesn't always know how to get food in his mouth. Last week we had applesauce for lunch, and I think half of it ended up on his shirt. If it's not applesauce on shirts, it's Cheerios on the ground, or apple springs across the table, or crumbs on the chairs. Or all of them at once.

But that's okay. You do laundry, you wipe it up, you take a bath at the end of the day. You hold your breath when you change his diaper and put the soiled one in the trash. The world goes on, and it's all right if it's absolutely filthy right now...truth is, some things will never be clean (like the bottom of M's feet?).

Life is not quite as fragile as you think. 
I'm the kind of older sister who wants to keep you from running too fast so you don't fall and hurt yourself. Or stays away from slightly dangerous activities just to make sure you don't die.

It doesn't quite work that way. These boys run and climb and find themselves upside down. They walk barefoot in the backyard and want to pick up the earwig that's crawling around. And when the toe gets stubbed or E falls flat on his face...it's okay. Often, he can pick himself up and go on. But when he can't...

Sometimes, all you need is a kiss. 
On more than one occasion, the boys have run into each other. E has tripped when I was looking away. M has run into something. And they come to me, ask Auntie Audrey for a kiss, and when I ask if it feels better afterwards, they say yes and go back to playing.

That's it.