Thursday, December 27, 2007

The Quiet after the Holiday Storm


it’s quiet


I'm on vacation...and the house is quiet. Even the sarge, who is ALWAYS on the move with this project or that...has been beaten into resting by a bug. (and the antihistab i slipped him & his runny nose)

Molly is busy with all of her new toys...amazing me with her 'mothering' tendancies, which Santa has enhanced by bringing new babies, diapers, bottles, high chairs...etc. We have no babies around here...where did she learn it?

I'm tired. I hate aging. We ran to KC yesterday to pick up kelsi for a holiday visit...and you would think i would have LITERALLY ran up there! The trip pooped me out, and i am a stumbling zombie today. At 11am, Kelsi is still sleeping. A typical 15 year old, she's a night owl and a day sleeper.

Housework is calling...I'm redoing the laundry room, which has been the 'ham-radio' room for the first 7 years...he finally moved out and into one of the bedrooms vacated by the grown children. There is alot of work to be done in there...part of the reason for the vacation...

but not yet....

I'm pooped.

I sit here thinking about what to write today, wanting to hide from my responsibilities, timestamp the holiday, and watch and marvel at my miss molly kate.

Now that is something i could do for a living...watching molly.

She's hillarious most of the time...studious...obsessive...and just generally entertaining! I thank the heavens daily, that she inherited my sense of humor. I see it sprouting from her every day.

I find myself studying her, and trying to figure her out. There's something there I'm missing...and it frustrates BOTH of us. There is a key to unlocking all that she is...all that she holds secret. She glances up from her project and gives me a look, like she's waiting for me to hurry up and figure it out!

She's as smart as a tack, for those of you reading this that DON'T have a child with DS....contrary to popular belief, our kids are very smart...they just find it amusing to hide that fact from the general population.

Currently she is switching from network television to a dvd. She carefully slips 'the wiggles' out of it's plastic case, examines it, blows on it, then promptly rubs it around and around and around on her shirt, to clean it before placing it in it's play-home, and starting it up.

Except, she doesnt ever wear clothes around the house, so the dvd was being rubbed on her belly!

Cracked me up, and explained alot! (why they are always sooooo smudgy!) My little minah bird...always watching, always storing information in her little computer/brain, to be used at a later time, when needed.

she is very appropriate...and mimicks and understands EVERYTHING done by adults, her main peers around here, more so than we're really aware of.

On Thanksgiving, when she ran through the kitchen...she didn't know I had just mopped up a spill... she hit the wet and landed with a thud on her back, the back of her head smacking the floor with thud 2!

No tears, no whining.......worse

GAWWWWWWWWD DAMMIT!!!

was the scream coming out of the kitchen...making mama suck air, and bringing the goofy grin to daddy's face....NOT FUNNY, LARRY!

she doesn't cuss often, and i didn't even know she KNEW both words...chaulking that one up to the losing season of the chiefs and the cardinals this year, and her heathen father/sports nut.

Always appropriate......the usage was articulated perfectly and used in the proper circumstance. It may not be PC...but i'll take it!

Always appropriate....

unless her house is invaded by a well-intention, real white-bearded, Santa, who only wants to enhance her Christmas experience.

She would accept the gifts, but she would not sit on his lap. She sat close to him, but kept a keen eye (really the 'stink-eye') on him...not the awestruck eyes we were going for.

She's very cautious with strangers, and i like that. The cardiologist may NOT reach down her pants to check the femoral artery pulse, and she doesn NOT sit on stranger's laps.

I like that about her.

Then there was Mike. He shoulda been a stranger...but molly saw past that. Mike was a customer of mine at the store. I'd known him for 20 years, but not really, until after knowing molly.

Mike was confined to a wheel chair. I'm not sure if it was polio, or cerebral palsey..or what...never asked, but i kind of avoided him a little, until he started talking to me about movies. John Wayne Movies.

He was obsessed with them...and there was our connection. Molly's obsessions include sponge bob...and no way is john wayne-sponge bob....but the obsession was the same. I could see it, and knew immediately how important it was for this man to have those movies.

I started ordering the hard-to-find VHS (could only be VHS) for him on ebay, and delivering them to him as soon as they came in...that involved a trip to his home, and molly accompanied me on these trips.

Molly and Mike hit it right off...she never wanted to LEAVE. He loved baseball, and when we were at his house, the cardinals would be on his TV, and molly would plop down, and be impossible to move out!

She didn't mind his 'different' way of speaking..or his twisted body...didn't even SEE it as far as i knew. She would take his favorite chair, sit in his wheel chair, and yes...she would sit on his lap.

Mike died mid-august of a damned infection that couldn't be stopped.

Mike's mom's spirit died with him. I'm trying to stay close, but she is inconsolable. Her whole life was dedicated to taking care of this special child, and now she is lost. I'm learning lessons here.

The last day i worked, she came in. She was carrying two huge Christmas gift bags. In one was the VCR i took to the care home...Molly lent it to him, so he could watch his movies while there.

The other was full of gifts for molly....i was aghast!

"Darlene! This was not necessary! I don't know what to say"

She explained to me, that Mike had been working on this bag all year...up until the time he got sick, and that it WAS very necessary for her to deliver it, and for molly to enjoy it!

That was the stranger that wasn't.

Molly knew.

Molly knew Mike was safe, and it was good to be friends with him. She shared her obsessions with him... She never stared at him. He was just mike, and he was very comfortable. He liked molly for just what she is...and i think he appreciated her for NOT staring, i think he appreciated the fact that she DIDN'T care...about things typical people care about. Her only concern was if Pujols had hit a homer yet, and if he was going to plug in one of those movies.

I'm gonna miss you mike. I'm sorry it took me so long to figure you out. I'm sorry your mom is hurting, and i'll do what i can.

I think molly already knows where you are....and will catch up with you later. She's easy like that...she doesn't like the goodbyes....but is patient until next time.

*************************************************

My wish for you is to have a day like i have today. One where you have the time to just sit and marvel at your children. One where you appreciate all that they are....remember, the laundry can wait.



Merry Christmas...and a Blessed Holiday Season to you all!

No comments: