There's Beauty In The Everyday Life

Our family has been fighting off illness this whole month: flu, cold, sniffles, boogies, the works. The recent Polar Vortex of plunging negative temperatures reaching the double digits didn't help at all. In such, we suffered from cabin fever and the winter blues. That is until I decided to reverse my stance by looking through the viewfinder of my camera.

In what seemed like a mundane everyday indoor life of mommyhood and sickness, came something significantly beautiful. From the outside looking in, evidence of blessings are immutable. There is always an abundance of blessing in the universe. From the misfortunes of illness, hardship, or the ubiquitous feelings of motherhood & losing self identity, blessings are and has always been there. Looking through the pictures proved how beautiful life is... even when times seem so... ordinary.

For instance, above is a picture of both Maksim's thumbs wrapped in band-aid. He picked up the habit of biting his fingers, pulling off hang nails, causing his thumbs to bleed. We put Peanuts band-aids on his boo boos. He has come up to us several times, showing his band-aid and saying, "Boo Boo" requesting us to kiss both thumbs. It's precious, really. Focusing on his fingers and on the band-aids made such a remarkable picture of the things that happen during our everyday lives.

Even snack time rendered to be a moment to remember. Maksim loves Kim's Magic Pop. It's precious when he asks for it, "Mama, Magic Pop, please." These are the moments many parents take for granted. Just because feeding your child past the milk stage, first baby food, and first solids doesn't change the fact that every meal time can be something exciting. Today, Maksim ate a soup that my mother-in-law taught me how to cook, Ukrainian Green Borshct. It was exciting.

We have a Nook Color that Andrey turned into an Android. Here Maksim is watching Handy Manny on Netflix. He also has several educational apps that he calls, "Games" that help him grow his vocabulary and motor skills.

This was the first time I've ever seen him put his hand on his face to lean on. I had to grab the camera to take pictures. Precious. I decided that one of the things to implement this year is to have my DSLR camera by my side at all times. I really don't want to miss a thing, because looking through the viewfinder of a camera gives me such priceless joy. It helps me to look from the outside in for a realistic perspective of the things that matter.

I still have to make plans for an every day curriculum for learning. Sometime this spring, we are planning for me to work less so that I can home school Maksim. At this point, we are spontaneously learning the alphabet, shapes, and colors. He seems to be picking it up rather well. Above, he is putting little nic nacs inside his backpack. 

I'd usually sit nearby to ask him each item goes in his backpack. He's pretty good at communicating and describing things. When he doesn't say anything, I describe what the object is and what it does. Repetition is a great teacher. 

After stuffing his backpack, he asked me to put it on. Afterwards, he said, "School bus, Mama." It shocked me since the last time he saw kids wearing backpacks, then getting into a school bus was last summer during his morning walks. He understands the concept of school. It's amazing. He rode his little ride towards the end of the room, got out and said, "Mama, Maksim backpack too heavy. Take off, please." The increase  in his vocabulary and sentence structure makes me so happy. 

Last week I called my mother from work. Maksim answered and said, "Hello? Who's this?" When I told him it was his Mama, he responded with, "Yeah? What's up?" I don't know where he picks these things up. But it is amusing.

He dumped the contents of his backpack on the floor and then picked up the shapes.

He set them in a straight line and then asked me to play with him. We stacked the shapes in a tower. Every time we built it, he knocked the shapes over. We must have built the tower at least 15 times. He laughed every time he knocked it over. WORTH IT!

Yesterday, I cooked some yummy garlic flavoured spaghetti zucchini (don't you just love my Padermo?) and the Ukrainian Green Borscht. Maksim sat opposite me. While I prepped the veggies, I described each vegetable and he repeated after me. He just sat there and watched. I talked to him as much as I could to increase his vocabulary. He also played games and watched Veggie tales on his Nook. 

But as bland as it may seem, life is really beautiful. And I never imagined this level of fulfillment being a parent. It's the best gift I've ever received, because it continues to change me from the inside. Most importantly, parenting allows me to become the person I'm meant to be in this universe.