Tonight I was coloring with Stink. We had just finished baking. Pip had gone to bed because she was more cranky than I am when I run out of Yuban. (Well, almost. No one is as cranky as I get without my morning coffee. Or afternoon coffee. Or evening coffee. I'm a bit of an addict, but it works for me, so please don't have a virtual intervention for me. I'd send you all my spam. That's a lot of penis enlargement ads. Just sayin'.)

As I helped him read which colors matched with what number, "Red =1", "Blue = 2" I seized a life lesson. I remarked, "Colors, like ingredients in the cookies we just made, can be kind of bland by themselves. But when you put them all together, it's amazing what kind of picture - and final food dish - you can create. Teamwork! It's great, isn't it?"

Stink looked at me all wide-eyed and confused. He didn't say much but kept working away at the green xmas bulbs on his paper tree.

For a moment, I wished I was five. I wanted my mom right there with me, chatting me up about things I would only remember after I broke my heart ten times. I didn't want a life lesson. I didn't want to think about how everything together makes everything beautiful, because sometimes everything all mixed up becomes one giant mess and headache. I wanted to be like Stink, happy with his one crayon, living in the present, not caring if everything blended into one uniform work of art.

But then, now that I think about it, everything about my few moments with him tonight was perfect. Not even my overthinking noggin could mess that up.

* Photo taken today of Stink with his new Scooby "thinking cap." What started as a whim - the skull caps - have now become his favorite thing. I swear he's more focused at school with them, too. Something about heat not leaving his sweet little brain. Anybody hear of this theory besides Daria?

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