she pointed to the rainy gray sky behind the front door and “uh-uh-uh”-ed, her big eyes sweetly pleading.
“no, we can’t go outside, baby. it’s raining.”
i thought about how much fun it will be to take her out in the rain someday when she’s bigger. we’ll jump in puddles with our rain boots. we’ll twirl umbrellas and dance like fred astaire. we’ll throw caution to the wind and have fun like it’s goin’ out of style.
and then i thought, why wait?
…so we played in the rain. …and she smiled (and pulled at her clothes for me to take them off, of course).
and i remembered that somewhere, up high in my closet, were my old ladybug rainboots. i bought them ten years ago from a little amish store in shipshewana thinking they would be fun to wear to school someday when i got a teaching job.
yup…i still had them. i shook ’em for spiders, slipped ’em on her and snapped what would become one of my favorite pictures ever.
my laineybug…i love you. sorry i let you cry in your crib today. i hated every minute of it, but it will make you strong and confident and help you grow little wings that will let you fly on your own someday. i’ll always fly next to you. …even in the rain. i love you.
…enjoying the small things. ~k
“Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced… our lives are measured by these.”
~susan b. anthony
p.s. doncha love her killer grouchy face in the second one? i think it means…”don’t even think about takin’ me back inside after these pictures.” …or maybe it’s more of a “this is for lettin’ me cry in my crib.”
