Extreme outliers, a bell curve, a bear, dinner, and a story.

It’s rarely a really big thing that either lifts you up or crushes you. Sometimes you hear of that really big thing, but the day-to-day stuff, those little, seemingly mundane moments of life? I think that therein lies the real lifting and the crushing. And sometimes, when I really think of it in my geeky psychological terms of the ol’ bell curve, those extreme outliers feel the same – so uplifting that I’m left feeling crushed, down on my knees, just so darn grateful for giggles and wiggles and goofy smiles and goshdarnit just a big ball of LIFE.

I’m also pretty darn grateful for dinner out. :) Just keepin’ it real.

Hpsquared

Our moments are simple. They usually involve crayons and legos or something boyish and tactile like that.

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And when I intentionally make my world stop for a moment and breathe, I notice sweet similarities in these boys…

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It would seem that a necessary tongue sticking out makes sure your colors go where you’d like and the masterpiece you’re creating is the one you’ve dreamed up in your head.

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In the eye of the beholder, baby.

They live in a world built for people bigger than them. Imagine holding a cup as big as your torso with a straw sticking out of it so high that you have to hold said cup at belly button level just so the straw won’t go all rogue on you and enter a nostril.

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The payoff? His new smile. It’s not just for the camera, either. It’s for “just because.”

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I took the opp to pull in my favorite short people real quick and real tight.

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And then carefully reminded the oldest of the two how to hold the camera and take a pic.

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Looks as though I’ve embraced wearing a hat trucker style. I need a stylist…

Another outlier moment: Hank’s new tattoo. See the black band with the red stripe? He made a permanent commitment, well, permanent, and it lifted me and crushed me into a new level of mad love for him. (You can read about that commitment here and going down to “The Thin Red Line”.)

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Even the wrapping up and packing up of dinner out has its own sweetness, like that of the light bouncing around and creating a warm cocoon for our 3yo…

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And his reaching up (though begrudgingly) for a protector to lead the way.

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How do you end a day like this?

With a bedtime story.

Read by our burgeoning reader. Twice.

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It’s the best life of all.

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