Monsoonity

Last year we learned that the New Mexico monsoon season is finicky. Like, it didn't show up for the party at all. This year, it's here, and it's a big show-off without the expected run-off. Very late last night Reni and I snuggled on the couch and watched the lightning show in the sky, and today I dozed in Anika's bed, the peanut on my right, the sweet baby boy on my left, and listened to thunder roll and pound as one fifteen-second rain shower pummeled the house like nobody's business.

Long story short, our lawn is currently a fire hazard in this so-called rainy season. But as I lay in bed with both munchkins today, I realized that these fleeting moments are what motherhood is all about. How much of their lives will they voluntarily want to snuggle with me, after all? Even if I really wanted to get up and actually do something that I can only do when the kids are napping, like clean the floors or eat without shoveling my food or read the news or take a bath or water the lawn or, I dunno, conquor the world. Something useful. Yet perhaps getting both kids to nap -- while getting some quiet time myself -- is the most useful thing of all. Even if one arm is asleep and I don't dare move a muscle for fear of waking one of the kids.