Butterflies

There are times as a mother, where the actions of your children will stop you in your tracks and cause you to shake your fists up to the heavens sighing "COULD THIS CHILD REALLY BELONG TO ME?!" and then there are those feelings that only your children can stir in you that truly bring butterflies to your heart and you wonder "HOW WAS I EVER SO LUCKY?"
I have really been so happy with the school my boys are fortunate to attend. They have great teachers. Especially Riley has a wonderful soft spoken teacher with a young male student teacher assisting who is so engaged with the kids and treats them all like the unique and special individuals that they are. Liam is getting close to age 6 (WHAT?!) and has lightbulbs going off in his head all the time as he connects letters into words and smiles brightly with the realization that he has figured it out on his own. He has been so testy lately, so intense with both his love or hate of anything and everything. He is definitely my most romantic, anxiously awaiting his 5 kisses before bed. I reminded him that soon it will be 6! to which his eyes sparkled and he said, "Just wait til I'm 28 and you will have to give me 28 kisses!!" I told him he could get his wife to do it then! His eyes sparkled some more.
Today we had our second round of swimming lessons for the week. It is going well, and the boys are having fun. Riley finishes first and swims around in the kiddie pool while Liam finishes up his lesson. Two moms from school were also waiting around in the kiddie pool with their 2 little girls each. One of the little girls (age 3) grew a quick attachment to Riley and would squiggle (not really swimming yet!) over to him and throw her arms around his neck, for a hug? for a ride?? not sure. Riley would smile over at me and sorta shrug in this cute helpless look. She repeated this about 10x in half an hour. You could tell he was slightly annoyed but proud all at the same time, being careful not to dive underwater and drown the poor little thing! Such a good big brother kinda guy he is.
Shea has been a little bit of a goofball, still not settling down in a big boy bed, so we've kept him trapped in the playpen. He likes it when I lay down on my bed and read my book while he's right at the foot of the bed in his playpen and never fights his nap but drifts off to sleep. I sometimes need to wake him up after the two hours to ensure that he will go to sleep again at night easily. When he first sees me, he says, "MOM! I Missed YOU!" and then "I LOVE YOU, mom". And I always say, "I love you too, Shea". And then he says, "I love you too, mom." So adorable. Can't get enough...
sigh