Getting Past the Edge of the Bed
"Oh boy!"
She woke up and immediately had a quick thought. "Oh!" Determination was set on her face, and her lips straightened.
Wide awake, the little two-year old toddler hurriedly threw the soft cuddly blankets back, sun-drenched room bright. Her orange night-light was still on, for some reason, and the checkered red sheets spoke of things colored and happy. She still had her "Binky" in her mouth, her pacifier, and it comforted her.
Her dark green pajamas were those kind with a zipper and yellow feet, padded on the bottom with that sticky pad kind of stuff. Rolling over on her stomach, she positioned her body so that it was perpendicular to the bed. She meticulously laid her head on the middle of the bed, then scooted her legs so they flipped over the edge. This was the challenge of the day: to get past the edge of the bed. To get to greater things that were unseen. She had to do it!
Image. Wide Awake with "Binky" in her Mouth. All she had to do was to get out of the bed without falling down. As she peered over the edge, the floor was far, far down there. She was on a cliff. But she was ready for her day. Onto the edge of the bed she went!
She laid on her belly, then grabbed onto the bedsheets with her little hands clenched tightly. At first, her feet dangled over the edge, and she started to let herself slowly fall down in a controlled way. Now her knees were on the edge. One hand loosened grip and moved closer to the edge, too. Her hips pushed on the edge of the bed. Now both fists were white at the knuckles. Slowly, ever so slowly, she let gravity pull her down. The edge of the bed was at her belly now. Her feet swung from the bed, and they inched down.
"Uh! Uh!" She grunted as her eyes looked backwards. She looked backwards so hard that her eyes hurt. It was morning again and she just had to do it! "Uh!" She couldn't wait! She had to get out of this bed!
"Bam!" Her feet hit the floor, and she went tumbling overboard. "Uh!" Her body was going upward now, picking herself up. She was glad to be off the bed, at least. This was progress. She wasn't hurt at all!
Quickly, she picked herself up and started running. Ahh! But she was still awkward and didn't quite catch all her balance first, so she fell again. She had been in forward motion, and her body lost control and pitched forward. "BOOM!"
"Uh!" She was sprawled out with her hands before her, elbows down. She struggled a bit. "Uh!" Wiggling this way and that, she grunted as she lifted herself again, until at last, she was on her yellow padded feet. WHEW!
"Mama! Where?" Her eyes searched left and right, right and left as she made her way out of the sun-soaked room. Into the hallway she went, scrunching her eyes to adjust to the dark hallway.
She looked under the bookcase. She peered under the chair. She searched. She pouted. Nothing was there.
Then she had a thought. "Outside!"
She toddled over to the back door, hands smearing another set of handprints on the glass window. "Oh boy!" She smiled. Relief. Bliss. Now she could play!
Her eyes widened as she saw them together. The brother and sister cats were licking themselves in the sun, bellies up, no care in the world.
She thought they were little people stuck inside of a cat's body. One was Fluffy, and one was Mattie. Today she would put them in her blue bucket, then put them on her slide. They would slide down the slide, and she would laugh.
Image 2. Two Kitties in a Bucket: Awe! She would do this over and over again, just like yesterday.
Her laughter and giggles would fill the air, just like her naturally curly hair that turned from brown to blonde in the sunlight. Just like her little hands would pick up one furry friend, and then the other, as if they were her babies. Real ones. They jumped and played, they got belligerent and tried to run away; they behaved, and then they misbehaved. And she loved the unexpected playfulness they had, and she pretended to scold them when actually, she wasn't mad at all. For some reason, she just liked to point her finger at their faces, and lecture them here and there. It just felt right. Humph.
She loved to curl them up to her cheeks, feeling their soft fur on her skin. It was as if their texture and life breathed newness into the world. They re-animated her 'space' like foreigners from another land, and they counted on her for food and water. She watched them lap up their meals after playing in the hot sun, and never understood why they didn't like to join her in the blow-up swimming pool. She thought they should want to cool down; she just never understood!
There was nothing else that she wanted to do.
That's all she wanted; that's what the whole day was all about. Playing with her babies, taking care of her babies, laughing with them and laughing at them! Keeping them 'in control' was quite the job! After swimming pool time, she was ready for a great nap. No complaining, no resistance, no whining, no saying, "No!" like a two-year old. She was pleasantly pooped.
That's it.
So simple it was, for her furry friends to be her companions
in real life. She loved every moment of being with them.
She never thought about growing up. Not once.
She never thought that today and tomorrow would fade away. No.
She just did the things she liked, the things that she was used to doing ~ being a mommy, feeding her babies, and playing with them. She didn't even have to work very hard at getting them to behave. They were just so naturally cute and cuddly!
And after dinner, she would brush her teeth and go to bed.
And when she woke up in the morning, her first thought would be that of her babies. She would nurture them, spend time with them, talk to them, love them, and make sure that they knew of her love.
Each morning, this was her routine, once she balanced 'just so' on the edge of the bed, and let gravity pull her down until
her feet touched the floor.
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