Before we go to bed, we sing "Thanks A Lot". We've been doing it for months now, but it's only been recently (now that, as I've previously mentioned, Martigan's language skills are rapidly developing) that Mads has started listing things he's thankful for before I sing him the song. He is always thankful for his daddy and for Lunchbox. Sometimes he points to himself and says, "I thankful for me!" Sometimes he points to me and says, "I thankful for you!" I've started making a little list of the things for which Mads expresses gratitude, to pair with my own list.
- for his dragon
- for boobies
- for Cici and Ella
- for cars
- for farts
- for rocking to sleep
- for Hammer! (his Thor's hammer night light)
- for his truck
- for medicine
- for gingerbread cookies
I Am Grateful:
- that Mads is learning the practice of gratitude so early.
- for my son's scribbles on the blank pages of my new journal.
- for Wolfman's cooking and the company and conversation of friends.
- in retrospect for the help of my husband, my grandmother, my mother-in-law, and my father-in-law in those first lonely, overwhelming weeks post-partum--for Sandra vacuuming and mopping my kitchen on her day off work, for Bob pacing the house with screaming Mads in his arms, for Grandma rocking Mads to sleep in a wooden rocking chair, for Jared, always Jared, my love and partner and helpmate and the most incredible father to this child of ours.
- when I wake up to realize Mads and I finally fell asleep somewhere in the midst of the most ferocious before-bed tantrum he'd thrown in months, and I Am Grateful my son is not actually possessed by demons but, just, two.
- to wake up early and have a full hour to myself in the morning, sitting at the kitchen table, working on this here blog; I Am Grateful to Wolfman for being my alarm clock.
- for the becoming-regular customer at work whose compliments give me some inkling of my career trajectory, particularly when I'd given up on the word "career" applied to myself.
- to April, for picking up Duck Donuts the morning of Christmas Eve at work--three dozen, though I never got pat the first box with all the maple bacon donuts.
- for long, empty roads Christmas Eve morning as I drive myself to work.
- for my father-in-law, Bob, always for everything he does, for all the ways he shows his love.
- when I ask Mads what he thinks of my new earrings and he answers, "that's beautiful!"
- to Wolfman, for rightly pointing out after my I'm-Not-Good-Enough Christmas Eve meltdown that at this age, Mads is not particularly interested in Christmas and only wants his tried-and-true routines.
- for whichever hippie soul paid for all the 90s music playing on the jukebox at Waffle House Christmas morning--Jane's Addiction, REM, even Blind Melon.
- for surprise visits at work from my sister and niece and from Jared's Aunt Theresa and his cousin Steven's family--Hollie, Steven, and the girls, Selby Kate and Dani Rae, and I Am Grateful for Selby's comment that when she grows up, she wants to come back to my shop and buy one of the recycled sari skirts.
- for Christina's incredibly detailed power point on processing in the POS system, so that even without her, I can find my way around the system easily enough.
- for Grandma's leftover manicotti for lunch, just as good 24 hours later and cold as it was freshly baked.
- for the feeling of riding in a car on a warm, humid night with the windows rolled down.
- that I am not a child anymore.
- for the sound of rain hitting the car windshield.
- that even when my husband and I are fighting (if it can be called that), we can still share joy, interest, and humor in our son together.
- for the privilege of having stood in the same room with pages of Leonardo Da Vinci's journals and the original works of MC Escher.
- when Mads tells me, "I love you. I want to hug you," even though I know he's just trying to weasel his way out of bedtime.
- for a phone call from my mother-in-law just to wish us Happy New Year.
- to be married to a man who can build a fire, and for cold enough weather, finally, to necessitate a fire, and for the tinkling, musical sound of embers in a hearth.
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