Trailing Clouds of Glory

William Wordsworth once wrote,

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,	60
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come	65
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

This could have been written about Lil' Mama.

Last night as I quietly shut The Littles' door, sighing with relief that at least three of the crazies were asleep, I heard the Caboose and Lil' Mama talking reverently by the back door.

"Snow!  It's snowing!" Lil' M
"..no!  Ohhh..."  This was the 18 month-old's attempt.

It dawned on me that Caboose wouldn't remember ever having seen snow.  It was coming down in the darkness as thick puffs of white.  Beautiful.  And Lil' M was introducing the entire concept to Baby.

Before I could stop it from happening, Lil' Mama had boots, coats, hats and gloves on them both and Baby was standing with  her face to the sky as Lil' Mama busily started a snowman.  (It was really coming down! And it was about 10:00 pm.)

Somehow, the active three year-old from next door joined us.
As I responsibly tried to get all the toys into the garage, the three of them joyfully constructed a snowman, which because of its size quickly became a snow-horse.  (Snow too heavy?  Change the parameters.)
 Then at the impulsive suggestion of the neighbor boy it became something to kick with reckless abandon.
There aren't many teenage girls who would dance in the moonlight snowfall with two toddlers bent on destroying her hard-won snow-horse.

Lil' Mama is one of a kind.

The girl was born three weeks early with a fully-stocked diaper bag in one hand and a party plan in the other.  After smiling at me, she politely asked where the nursery was, as there was an elaborately detailed extravaganza about to happen, and she was the coordinator.

Besides being incredibly beautiful, this young woman is intelligent and fun.  If there is a baby around, she's probably loving on it.

This girl is impeccably honest, dependable and clean to her very core.

If there is any possibility of something social happening, count her in!  (Chances are she planned it, anyway.)

It's rare that I can pull one over on her, but on her 12th birthday, I was triumphant.  This child spends the entire year planning her birthday parties, so I had a pretty good idea about what I could do for her surprise party that year.  In fact, she helped me with the entire thing three months beforehand.

I had to throw it early to throw her off the scent.  She had a day/time planned by August (her b-day is the end of October) so I just planned my surprise for a week before.

One of my most cherished mind-photos occurred when my animated, glowing daughter sat surrounded by 30 of her closest friends as they shouted, "Open mine first!  Choose me!"  Sweet.

Each one of these children is my favorite for his or her own unique, delightful reasons.  Lil' Mama brings sunshine, peace and fun to our home.  Her helpfulness and cheerful outlook on life helped us to know that three children were definitely NOT ENOUGH!