Whales' Tails

Well, I don't have much time to write today -- I always type that right before writing a ridiculously long post. Then I have to go back at the end to delete it.

Saturday is Mark's weekend sleep-in day. It's also the weekly 11am kids' art class at A.C. Moore in Williston! It's usually FREE (or $1-$5 for supplies). Elle has been begging me to take her to her own art class ever since Auntie Bee and I went to a creature-drawing class at Artists' Mediums a few weeks ago. This was perfect. I made the pom-pom, and she glued on the googly eyes and accessories.

The next class sounds really fun. It's another free one -- making animal creatures out of beads. A.C. Moore's events calendar is a little hidden on their website (Go to this link, here, for the store locator, type in the Williston zip code (05495), click the red View Events link), or stop in the store any time for a flyer listing the events for the month.

After, Elle asked if we could go to the "Whales' Tails" in Burlington. You can see the sculpture from the highway, but I've never walked up to it. "Sure," I said. I'm always up for more free fun activities!

I still can't entirely figure out why, but this little adventure was such a special bonding moment for us. It was like a mini hike to the top of a giant mountain. Like Vermont's version of the Statue of Liberty. There's a long trail you can take that goes through the woods and loops around back to the statue, but we just cut across the baseball field.

There's something so freeing about letting your toddler loose in a giant field. She ran around in circles, played in the sand, screamed, laughed, chased me. There was no saying "No." There were no limits. She got so worn out that she fell asleep early and slept all through the night. Yep, we need more of this!

But more than running free, it was another opportunity to show my little girl how big the world is that we live in, to show her something that looked so small from far away and let her experience the enormity of it up close. Vast fields, huge sculptures, planes landing at the nearby airport. Blue skies stretching out as far as she could see, and layers of varying shades of blue mountains pasted in the background.

"I'm scared," she said, as she stared up the hill, two monstrous whales' tails towering over her head.

"It's just a sculpture, a statue. They're not real whales. Besides, you're a brave girl. You can do this."

She looked up at me, listening intently, then ventured ahead. When we got to the top, she turned back to me and said, "You're a brave girl, too, Mommy."

I hope so. "I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart."