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Bodhi and I enjoyed a date day together, while Owen and Shane enjoyed a ski day in Breckenridge.  It was magical, filled with laughter, art, cooking, sharing and play.  Bodhi decided he wanted to be a pirate, bake treasure cookies and "do a project" which involved turning an old box into a "real treasure box".  We drew a beard on his smiling face, baked some oatmeal-raisin-chocolate-walnut filled cookies and decorated a box to contain them.  Once this was finished we packed a picnic lunch and drove to the park with lots of blankets and warm jackets (the temperature took a swan dive into frigid waters).  After lunch I hid the treasure box and a little pirate book beneath a bush and gave Bodhi a clue:
"Beneath a bush where you cannot see,
There rests a gift for you from me."
He hunted with lots of "ARGHS" and "AYE matey's", until he found them.  He immediately ran into the midst of the playground trying to gather stray children to sit in a circle with him to open his treasure.  Of course this didn't work.  I convinced him to open it with me on our blanket.  As soon as he had the box of treasure cookies open he asked if he could please share them with his new "friends".  I told him to check with their parents and then share away.  He walked the playground for the next half hour eating his cookie and giving a cookie to every child whose parent said "Yes".  Only when the last child was finished did he put the box down to play again.
As we left he said, "God is in me.  It is me and you and the tree and them and the car and ...." 
I smiled, borrowing his certainty and leaning back in that truth, the truth of giving handed to me by a beard-smeared four year old who adores people with eager abandon.

Comments

Karuna said…
Ahoy matey ! he is so big. i cannot believe that he is 4 already!
January 30, 2011 at 3:20 PM
Wind said…
You have got to be the funnest mom ever!
February 1, 2011 at 11:14 PM
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