Baby Bear had his 9 month check up today--he's only 3 inches shy of 3 feet tall! We saw a new doc, not our regular one, but I liked her . . . she kept cooing at him and saying how perfect he was :) As a mom, that tends to get people on your good side!

We hit Wal-Mart after that and I found nifty storage boxes for the kid's room that came filled with my favorite wipes! Happy me! I also found a purple ruffled basil plant and some wax bean and cucumber seeds. I've been looking for bean and pea starts with no success--maybe I am just too late in the season for them. On the way out there was a fundraiser for a local resource that feeds the homeless and when Princess saw the semi-preciousness of the stones in the key chains, bracelets and necklaces, she wanted one so badly and I gave in. She now owns a citrine turtle key chain. We talked about where the money was going and why we were doing it and she enthused about getting to help others and getting a turtle in return.

Then we all three schlepped off to the chiropractor for our Official Evaluations post fender bender. It was nice to be done with that. Now all I have left to leave this disaster behind me is to send the papers back to the insurance company and be done. This particular experience is just another thing to help me learn to relax and go with the flow.

For quiet time we read Leaf Magic by Margaret Mahy, and Princess was terribly upset at the end. I finished the final sentence and was enjoying that delicious warm feeling that you have after reading a wonderful, touching story and she began to sniff and then snuffle and then launch into full blown hysteria. I finally got her calmed enough that she could show me the page that had upset her so much and it was the page where the leaf was trapped in a dark box all alone. She had fallen in love with the leaf and was devastated that it was shut up in a box and then truly distressed that it had been turned into a dog.

She has such a tender heart and she sees life in everything from rocks to paper dolls to the crispy worm she found on the front steps this morning ("he's just tired mom"). I tried to help her see that it was like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly--a happy thing, a good thing, but the loss seemed too great to her . . . despite my attempts at comfort, diversion and explanation, the poor dear cried herself to sleep. I hope that as she grows I can help her keep the empathy and compassion she was obviously born for while teaching her how to handle change with as much flexibility and grace as possible.

"The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail."
Lao-tzu