3 Dimes, A Leaf and 1 Beautiful Boy

How I love picking up Ben from school. He was the "line leader" the other day. Mrs. Baily called on him and told him to pick a line leader, so he picked himself. How proud he was leading the group of pre-schoolers out the door. "Look at me, Moe Moe," he said, "I'm leading the line."

The children came up to me as they often do. They are all so pretty. There is a little girl there who has the prettiest eyes. She will often show me what she has made and she smiles when I compliment her on her art work. She doesn't talk much, but she smiles. What a beautiful child.

And, of course, Mr. Ben has to check on his "coins." The kids are used to the exercise now. "Moe Moe," says Ben, "do you have my coins?" They all wait with baited breath....like I'm not going to have them???? And when Ben pulls them out of my pocket, they all give a collective, "aahhh," like they have never seen dimes before. There is a man at work who will drop 3 dimes off at my desk. He doesn't have children, but I think he would have been a good father. "These are for Ben," he says and quickly walks away. And when I get back from walking Ben home, he comes back to my desk and asks, "did Ben find his dimes?" Oh yes, Ben always knows where to find his dimes.

Recently, Ben has been interested in bringing Mommy home a leaf. He will wade through them until he finds one that has a nice shape and will say to me, "Moe Moe, I'm going to give this to Mommy." A few days ago, the wind took his leaf. He was quite upset, as it was a beautiful shape. "Help me catch it, Moe Moe," he said, "I want to give it to Mommy."

And so, we go to his house. He always runs faster then I do and gets there first. We go inside and often Ellie is up...or, the noise we make wakes her up. She smiles at Jenna. I put my cold, cold face on hers and she pulls back. But as I talk to her in my "Moe Moe" voice, she smiles. I say, "where is Mommy?" And she looks at Jenna and smiles....or, if I say it often enough, Ben sighs and says, "she's right there, Moe Moe, can't you see her?"

I love walking Ben home from school. I have my 3 dimes every day and we collect leafs for Mommy. It is a special time and he is a beautiful boy. I hope I get to walk Sammy home too.