mama!?!?!@?!?

before i started my first job of the summer, I spent a few days out with my sister and her family in Michigan.

her big family of six.
four little ones.
the biggest one, almost as tall as me.
the littlest one.. the fun age of two. I've seen all of them go through it.
With each of their different personalities ... the age of two has morphed them into unknown creatures.
obstinate, unyielding ones at that.


but my sister
.my very patient sister
who is an award winning mother
has raised them so very well. i watch her in awe.

it is not an exaggeration to say that the youngest, A. will walk around the house calling for her, "Maaaama!! Maama!" 
He must have said 'Mama' ten thousand times, in the five days I was there...

He asks incessant questions. even when he knows the answers.
he will not accept the slightest hiccup.
:: needing constant attention, affection and lovin' upon.

in the middle of the night last thursday, he entered allison's bedroom, five times,
'mama, can you put my tiger t.shirt on?'
[his detroit lion shirt]
the next four times it was various other shirts.

99.9 percent of the day my sister can handle this// / along with her other three children scampering around the house.
but at one point when i was there,  he was overwhelmingly out of control.
'Mama! Mama!'
if it wasn't this. it was that! this, that! THIS! that!??
but he wasn't getting her undivided attention, at the very moment he wanted it.
he wasn't getting what he wanted now.

so A. had some time outside with his brother on the patio.
Well this was not gonna do. he wailed. collapsing.

his brother immediately came over and cradled him. hugging him from behind.
wiping his hair from his face. Shhhh.. .it's ok, A.
over and over again. rubbing his back.

just like his mother did to him when he was little.
just like his mother still does to him.
just like his mother has taught him.

and in that moment, i saw 'the two year old' in myself.
how in moments when i'm confused,
or i don't get what i pray for right away, how i can act just like A. did.
even in moments of distress or trouble.

if we're lucky we have people in our lives, who know just how to comfort us,
just how to pray for us... that is until we reach age_ three.