The sparkle moments

One of the things that never occurred to me about having a child was how much joy creeps into your life and envelops your world, twinkling in unexpected moments like fireflies in a field.

When I got home last night, I could see Nana and Jordan sitting in the living room, reading a book.

The photo is all hazy because of the flash on the window, even though I mashed it up close. But I stood outside, peering through the window, because it was just so sweet. And I knew that when I opened the front door, the focus would shift to me and the spell would be broken.

I stood for as long as I could in the cold, watching her read, and seeing them giggle together.

They were reading a book called, "I Want My Potty" - one Jordan loves, and one we've all read to him approximately 72 kabillion times.

The plot, as you might imagine, is rather thin. But the illustrations are charming and it's really gotten J interested in his potty.

Not in using it. More in saying, "Potty! potty! potty potty!" and carrying it around and such.

I'm using this as positive propaganda for when we eventually start potty training. I mean, the princess loves her potty, after all.

They read the book a couple times. And you could see Jordan sort of elbowing my mom, being all, "Here's where she wants her potty and they have to find it! The admiral has it! Hilarious! Oh, this part always kills me!"

And they'd snuggle into each other and laugh.Especially once you have a kid, so much of life is so prosaic and you can get so caught up in breakfast-lunch-dinner-bath-diapers-grocery-shopping-getting-enough-sleep-no!-don't-touch-that!-and-let's-wash-hands-and-blah-blah-blah.

For someone uninterested in routine and unskilled at consistency, this can get rather tedious.

But then you have these moments - and they actually happen with great frequency - that just fill your soul and make you want to laugh out loud and clap your hands. You expect pixie dust to fall around you.

I wish I could bottle the sparkle moments so that if you were having a bad day, I could share one with you.