Mooses and Otters

We had the most adorable lunch invitation today.

It started with an early morning "skype" with Millie and Addy.  They looked so gloriously "summer" - Addy was in her summer jammies with a light blanket around her, holding Little Bear tight in the big rocking chair that she was sharing with her mom and sister. 

The sun was shining in their window to their side.  Addy looked so relaxed.  Her eyes looked a little like she had gone swimming the day before and she just had the luxurious "I'm on summer vacation, and I'm loving it" look.

She kept stretching, then snuggling back into her sun-kissed blanket.  

Her three year old sister on the other hand, leaned a little bit more towards "ricochet-rabbit", complete with warm, footed, winter jammies and bouncing feet.  She kept chirping like a bird and bouncing, bouncing ready to get the day started.

We were chatting along, talking about Melvin the Moose and Louie the Otter, informing Millie that if Louie the Otter  knocked on our door the next time she stayed over, not to leave the house with that fun-loving Louie the Otter!!  he was swimming in the middle of the lake now which is thirty feet deep!! 

She was going along with the story, thinking and talking and jumping up and down making her blond hair bounce straight up and down - which was mostly all we could see of her as she thought and talked and chirped and bounced - but she was adding in her own parts.  She smiled and nodding knowingly, saying "we need to watch out for that Louie the Otter!!"

Addy thought Melvin might come along also, and he always makes such a huge food mess in the house -- and we discussed the magical Cinnamon Lake characters who coincidentally have rather big character flaws but are loving and kind and good and helpful as all get out. 

Then out of the blue clear sky Millie said "Want to go to lunch with me, Bob?"  

We didn't catch it at first, so she said it again.  Then her mom translated what we thought we had heard, and it was what we thought we heard....

"Want to go to lunch with me, Bob?"

We said, "Sure, Joe".

It was such a great picture, the three blond heads sitting in the over-sized, over-stuffed rocking chair that has rocked those wee ones when they were babies, the sun shining in, summer-time-speed on full slow, and it was glorious to talk with them and watch them think and smile and give hugs and kisses over the computer.

We can catch the kisses. 

Millie says she misses me and "needs to come see me".  I agree.  It melts my heart every time she says that.  I told her the doctor was giving me a FOUR WEEK VACATION SOON and that we needed to make some plans.  Addy, ever thinking, started planning. 

We've been through these plans before so many times, I think she is afraid now they are not going to happen.  We talked about them on the warm days in January.  We chatted about them the first day she was outside in her barefeet in March. 

She knows them by heart, and they need to happen soon.   

We are having a camp out, and a fire with marshmallows and then we have to be sure to have enough marshmallows for Babou the Bear, because he always comes and begs as he loves marshmallows so much.  We need to make a tent, then have a treasure map and go into the Magical woods and find some GOLD!!

Anyone wanting to donate to the "gold" digging, leave us a map please.

Actually, we are looking for some plastic Easter eggs to fill with tiny lizards and dinosaurs, to be found in old, rotting logs.  We think if they find those, it might just go into imagination-over-drive and the day will take care of itself.

We have told their parents from day one that this time around we are no longer responsible for explaining the "cycle of life" to young ones.  Bears eat children in real life, but not here.  If they want to bury porcelain ducks, their parents have to sort through that tangled web and tie it up with neat endings.

I'm just trying to decide my theological stance on porcelain ducks in heaven.  

If we find baby dinosaurs hatching out of plastic eggs, that will need constant care and possibly fresh plants and live bugs for food, they will have to figure out the dynamics on growth and what not.

Life has to have some magic in it.

Scott and I were talking last night that it was just last summer that Addy and her mum were catching fireflies over the meadow, and filled up a jar with the magical bugs.  Addy looked and looked at the lit up grass meadow and woods behind our house and was awed.

It wasn't such a far leap into the land of the magical after all.  

If we could, and we wanted to so badly, but if we could, 'Bob' would be in Westerville picking up his surprised lunch date about right now.....

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They looked so safe and happy and imaginative - I just want them to stay in that warm cocoon forever.  I don't want anyone to hurt them.  I don't want them to go to school and be swatted down by peers that feel nasty.  I don't want them to feel shame and ache and deal with a world that seems to be awry and off-kilter most days.

I want them to smile if they remember these stories one day about how kind and good Melvin and Louie were and how much fun those imaginary friends had accomplishing that good.  

I want them to grow up wanting to do "the right thing" as much as Melvin and Louie do in our stories.  I want them to be the hero of their lives, just like they are many times the hero of our sagas.  I want them to champion others and stand up for good, just like they now do in the magical woods at Cinnamon Lake.  

So if we can have conversations about imaginary characters that are good and friendly and giving and fun - then I say let the world go by while we discuss Melvin the Moose's penchant for giving rides on his huge antlers.  In the middle of the lake.

Where the water is thirty feet deep.

And never worry - Melvin does make them put on their life vests.  We are learning how to be safe as well as kind and caring and helpful.

There are real bears out in the world after all......