No Pride...Just Joy

How pleasant it is when you find out what kind things your children are up to, either through direct consequences or from someone else. Children have sweet, kind hearts that are often well hidden from their families through daily conflict and sibling rivalry. However, if I open my eyes for a moment, it is easy to see that goodness shining through in each of them.

I returned home from work earlier than expected, yesterday morning and found everyone eating the meal that I had planned on preparing for them. Lily apparently was up to her ears in cries of "I'm hungry!" and decided to make them lunch. That was very nice, but the unexpected part was that she had made me my very own salad, with turkey, feta, tomatoes and olives, all ready to go, awaiting just the vinagrette.  I was touched.

I found out from the neighbor across the street that after Aragorn had animal sat for her for a week, he had refused payment for his help. She was impressed, and that's a special sort of warm fuzzy for a mother. Especially when he was scooping cat poo for a week.

He likes to do things when not asked and will leave the kitchen clean enough to warm a perfectionist's heart when he is on duty. He has a special way of including Arthur in his projects that thrills his younger brother and reminds me not to despair; sometimes they actually get along very well.

Alienor is full of little random acts of kindness for her younger brothers. She spends hours teaching them letters or numbers. She loves to make them little gifts in all media; a knitted harness for his new lizard, paper notebooks to sketch in, and for me...a beautiful felt pencil case, one I had been meaning to figure out how to make for ages! She took the idea and a picture of it and made it for a Mother's Day present. What a lovely surprise. 

Arthur makes me so many beautiful paper sculptures and works of art he has crafted that I would need a small art gallery to display them. He is gifted in wood carving, which, yes, at the age of 8, has been a source worry for me (for the past 3 years), but just try to keep him away from a knife when there is a piece of wood around. Everything he makes becomes a present for someone. All of my favorite bookmarks have been designed by him. He is the runner for his older siblings, and takes the role graciously because he wants to be included.

Puck is a small bundle of hugs and kisses. He distributes them generously to the chosen, and I am so very happy to be his prime victim. When we have a guest who is younger than he is, he is so very kind to the little person, though he shares neither hug nor kiss unless provoked by chubby little arms around his neck.

I take no credit for the lovely people my children are. Each of them comes hard-wired with their own set of specs. I love to see how those qualities are shaping up and developing in each one in different ways in the person each is becoming.