Cold happiness

I made it! I did it!
This morning I got the ok from R's teacher to go on the field trip. I sat in my car at my son's preschool after dropping him off giving myself a pep talk.
"Suck it up buttercup and make your daughter happy. Let's do this!"

So I grabbed a coffee and my pain meds and drove to the field trip they walked to and when I walked up.... I tripped over something and was looking down holding my enormous requisite coffee when I was hit by my little blonde tornado in a huge bear hug.
"You came! You came!" The smile looked like it

would break her face in half.
I was dragged from person to person in the "this is my mom", "that's my mom" rounds and the other parents looked confused as to why this was such a big deal. But it was for us.
It was a great day! It was an outside field trip literally on a beach cliff overlooking San Francisco Bay. Beautiful and very very cold. And very very windy. Two of the worst things for pain for me. The first time I can make it to a field trip and it's one of the coldest days in San Mateo! Luckily in anticipation of being able to go I left the house in layers, a parka, hat, gloves, comfy warm boots and a scarf so it was just fine. I'm starting to get the hang of this "be prepared" thing.
I did learn I'm not the greatest chaperone. I am extremely chatty and very outgoing so I kept getting caught up in conversations with the other sweet moms and losing my kids. Ha! Luckily it's a very small, completely contained place and the three kids I had were my own, my good friends daughter (one of my daughters best friends) and one of my girl scouts 😉 so if any parents of kids in our class are reading this everything was just fine.

I can't say it enough. This was just another reminder of how we need

to appreciate seemingly simple things in our child's life. My little girl is so used to me not being able to go places she was expecting me not to come. The surprise was huge and so happy and probably something she will remember in her future. In one way I feel like it's good because she appreciates these things more than other kids with healthy parents, but in another way I really wish she could take for granted that her stay-at-home mom would go on her field trips and volunteer in her class.

Of course, if I was healthy enough to do those things regularly I'd be working and still not actually able to go. Hmmm.... Life is one big catch-22 isn't it?