before i get to the birthday pics

I have to take a break from the Athan-watching for a moment and tell you about my girl. Morgan is such a great big sis! And she is learning so many fun new things. I love to watch her wonder at the world.

Twice in one day, I had occasion to see her new-found maturity. First, when her friend Margot was here playing, the two of them were disagreeing about how to play a particular game. The specifics are confusing, involving reenactment of movie scenes and the laws of physics, but the important part is HOW they handled it. Normally, there would be an explosion. Yelling. Tears. Maybe some pushing or whining or throwing of heavy-ish things. But this time, instead, they came to talk to me. Morgan calmly explained the difficulty. I suggested some compromise and some alternative solutions. She chose one of them, then ASKED Margot if it was ok with her. To Margot's credit, she waited all of this out with great patience, then agreed with the new idea. Off they walked to play again. I did a little dance.

Later, as I was cooking dinner, Morgan was playing with some beads she was threading onto a string. She decided she only wanted the circle-shaped beads, and volunteered to loan the hearts and stars to Athan. They played for a bit, then Athan reached over and picked up one of Morgan's circle beads. Again, this would be the normal high-volume melt-down point. But instead, she clearly and gently asked Athan if he would hand her back the circle bead, please. Athan said "o-tay," handed it over, and went back to his hearts and stars. I did another dance. :)

Yes, I can hear the warning voices from some of you kind readers who have been parents longer than I. Of course, tomorrow, there will be unnecessary screaming over conflicts with friends and siblings. I know. I'll be holding to the moments like these in moments like those. :)