I got that call today. The one where you find out that one of your kids humiliated themselves by throwing up in front of their whole class. The one where you stop everything you're doing to get to them as quick as you can because home is where you want to be if you're going to be running to the bathroom every few minutes. I left work as quick as I feasibly could and a friend rescued me by picking up Jess until I could get to her. Of course these last minute surprises don't usually go as smoothly as one would like, so just as I was pulling into our house it dawned on me that Tom and I had switched cars this morning and he had the keys to the house, Jess got sick again and we had nothing but a yogurt crusted bowl from the morning for her to use. She was a trooper throughout the whole thing. While waiting in the Mcdonalds drive-thru to pick up a sprite I looked back at my little girl. She was focused on Lainey sitting next to her and I thought about how much I love her profile. The petite features of her face, and the way her hair (now sticky with you know what) frames it. I thought about how much she has changed over the years, but at the same time has always only seemed how she is now. When we finally got into the house The first thing I saw was these little pictures that Jessie had made for each one of us in the family last night. She curled up on the couch and was asleep before I could even offer to turn on a movie for her.
I recently went to TOFW and something Hilary Weeks said struck me probably more than anything else. She talked about how we, as parents will know our children as adults for an eternity, but it is only for a small moment that we will know them as children. That we will have the privilege to watch them learn and grow faster than I'd really like. And so I left the conference wanting to savor more of the time I have to spend with my kids, to listen to their crazy stories, and join in their crazy games, to curl up next to them on the couch when their sick.  To become a little more detached from all the electronic devices and a little more involved in the whirlwind of ideas and things going on in their mind. And if I think about it for just a second or two it doesn't take long for me to realize that as crazy as life can be sometimes with these munchkins, nothing makes me happier.