Little Things

Last week was rough.  No ifs, ands or buts.  Without going into details, it literally brought me to my knees and there were plenty of tears, and not enough sleep. But..... Saturday, Brianna bettered her time by almost a minute in the 3k.  Brianna is not uber competitive and she has finished several races spitting venom at me.  But she has kept at it and this weekend, when she rounded the final curve and headed into the home stretch she caught the bug.  She was politely holding back to not run over the racer in front of her.  I began to scream "PASS HER!" and another mom started running down the rope yelling for Brianna to "sprint now!" The light bulb finally popped.  She shot around her and began to pull really hard.  She passed that girl and another before speeding across the finish line.  For the first time, she came out of the chute with a small smile on her face.  Before she even got to me, I was on the phone with Brian screaming WHOO AHH!!  She is not setting any records or even finishing in the top 20, but in races with 100 runners or so, she is creeping up that top half and finally leaving it all on the course.  But, as Brian reminded me on the phone, "I'm not at all competitive."

And then there is Lucy.  That child has obviously given up sleep and is "finished" with everyone but me and daddy.  Her newest word is "STOP."  I have had alot of hair pulled out this week.  She also had a shining moment.  About the time I thought we could take no more, Brian sat her in a chair at our table at the Lodge.  She had made eating very difficult for both of us.  She picked up a fork with red velvet cake icing on it.  She held it in her hand and licked off the icing.  She did not notice the silence that settled around us as she carefully handed the fork back to Brian and watched him put more cake on the fork.  She lifted the fork again and gently, even though it took two tries, put it in her mouth and handed the fork back.  Sometimes it is the little things that keep us going.