Mothers Are Just Plain Cute

We had another busy day at the office. You will be amused, no doubt, to hear that my summer job for the foreseeable future consists of writing study guides. I do not tease. There is no twinkle in my eye. That's really what I'm doing, and there is a lengthy explanation behind it which makes plenty of sense from the perspective of a curriculum developer, and I argued strongly for the study guide model, and that's all fine and good. But in the back of my mind somewhere there's a college student screaming "NOOOOO! I just finished writing study guides!!!"

This voice will be quashed, and I will enjoy my study guide writing.

I got home early (3 pm) because of a computer hitch and because I had office work to do that was just reading (interesting stuff, by the way. It's all about different people-personalities and how students learn and how teachers teach), and made myself mint cocoa and sat in the quiet beauty of my home... and then Mother appeared.

Awwwwwww!

You must understand that she was in one of her most adorable states. She had been napping because she was up all night last night thinking (this happens to Mama sometimes when she has a lot of work to do) and her hair was fluffy on top and she sat down with me at the kitchen table and Burgee swathed her in the blue tapestry blanket and she talked baby talk to us.

SO CUTE!

I can't really reproduce the conversation--it was all Mama being sort of wide-eyed and little-girl-ish, the way she often is when sleepy and happy. She was telling us that Nathan was the sort of baby who melted into people when they held him, and informed Burgee that her hugs are the same way, and we were talking about how Daddy is apparently allergic to his car.

Oh, this is frustrating! There's nothing more frustrating for a writer than having a scene clear in the mind's eye, and being utterly unable to express it vividly! I can tell you that Mama was little-girl-ish, but that doesn't really describe it. You see, she's small, and has tiny slender hands and feet, and green-brown-gold eyes that just glow, and can look as innocent as an infant born yesterday, even though you know she's chuckling at you on the inside. She can deliver a witty zinger at forty paces that'll knock your ears off, but has this most amazing trick of being bubbly and happy and laughing and teasing just when you yourself are most miserable, so that you can't help coming out of your funk no matter how hard you try.

This afternoon she was just sort of soft and cuddly and chucklesome, which is normal for her, but when she's sleepy it becomes exaggerated until she's like the Velveteen Rabbit and a chickadee and a fairy godmother and a court jester all at once.

She's one of these people who surprises you every time you turn around. Capable as anybody, with more business sense than any other woman I've ever met, and a rare gift for teaching to boot, she still will sit there and literally talk babytalk. She's enchanting when she reads Winnie the Pooh to us, and loves children's poems and listening to Daddy read aloud. She's marvelous witty, with one of those splendid senses of humor that is always crackling and sparking, but never burns or scorches.

Perhaps I could attribute some of this to her upbringing. She was a ski instructor and a radio DJ and a Drama major and then a History major and an excellent equestrian and a ping-pong champion and a stage manager and a muckety-muck in Usborne Books.... in fact, she was most of those things before she married Daddy--and she was my age when she married Daddy!

But even this rich and varied background doesn't account for Mom. I guess I'd better leave it at "God made her this way, and I'm very, very glad he did."

Take note, all. I have a cute mother. ::happy sigh::