The Moments In Between

By Megan

I’m reflective, just like everyone else is the first couple of weeks of January, and I’ve come to the conclusion in the past week or so that one of the things I love best about family life is the time in between. Those little moments that happen when we’re all together doing nothing in particular, between planned activities and the regular routine, right before bed or right after breakfast – these seem to be the times we make some of our best memories as a family. It’s in the down-times, when we least expect to, that we seem to be our most authentic selves – we play with wild abandon, love with genuine affection and laugh with our bellies.

And that’s oh-so-okay with me, you know? It’s slowly teaching me that life’s pretty beautiful and wonderful and hilarious without a bunch of complex choreography on my part.

Speaking of complex choreography, one such spontaneous moment took place the day after Christmas as the four of us all sat in the office/playroom taking a look at some of the neat new toys Santa brought the kids. We had music playing in the background and one of Whitney Houston’s new songs came on. Al spontaneously stood up and started lip-synching and dancing along with her.

“Mo-om why is Dad doing all that crazy stuff with his arms?” asked Bean, rolling her eyes.

“For drama, Bean, DRAAAAMAAAA! That’s what Whitney does on stage when she sings – it shows her intense emotion and brings the audience right into the music and lyrics with her.”

“Oooo-kaaaaay,” she mused, and watched her Daddy a little longer.

“Well, why is Daddy dancing all weird and pigeon-toed like that?” she piped up.

I had no answer this time. But I had to admit (to myself, of course) that he did look a little goofy and uncomfortable.

“PENCIL SKIRT!” Al quickly shot out between bars, without missing a note. And he danced and sang on around us, completely unruffled, being the trained professional diva that he is.

(And just for the record it was Bean, not me, who said, after we’d all finished giggling, “Oh now THAT is totally bloggable.”)

Here’s wishing you all many fun and happy moments in between in 2010!

In between my totally bloggable moments in between, I do indeed blog about them at FriedOkra.