Melts my heart

Oliver has smiled in his sleep for many weeks. Yesterday (11/2) was the first time I saw a definitive "social smile," and let me tell you it totally melted my heart. The first thing that popped into my head was all the trauma we went through this summer, and my thought was "it was worth it to see that smile." Today he very purposefully smiled at me again. What a gorgeous sight to behold! Cheri was the second recipient of a purposeful smile from Oliver. She held him for a little while at the circus while I took Ian to the bathroom, and he smiled for her as well. I've had such trouble just getting a non-crying photo of Oliver lately, but my mission now is to capture a smile so I can enjoy that sight for months and years to come. Ian was 8 weeks old when he started smiling on purpose.

Paul asked me to find someone else to use his ticket to the circus. He did submit a partial (80 page) draft to his advisor yesterday afternoon, but he went back to PSU this morning and plans to come home tomorrow night. After he submitted the partial draft to her, he worked on submitting one more application. He needs to finish the introduction and write the conclusion. It was nice having him home last night. As of tonight he will have been home 3 out of the last 12 nights. The first person I called about using Paul's ticket was Cheri (the great grandmother from church who lives near us), and she agreed to go with us.

Last night during her bedtime prayers, one of Nadia's requests was for cotton candy. In her prayer she stated that she hoped they had cotton candy at the circus "because I've never had any before." What a hoot! I would have bought some for her today, but it was $12! What?!? So she has to wait a bit longer to taste it for the first time. Surely it doesn't always cost that much, right? The kids were really excited about going even though Ian sometimes mentioned things he thought would be there that weren't such as: a ferris wheel, cow, and dinosaur.

We got there early because they had said from 12-1pm was a pre-circus "bash" in which you could go backstage to see the camels, elephants, etc up close. Well it turned out you really needed to show up at 12pm because we showed up at 12:15, and at that moment they were announcing that the backstage was now closed. Bummer! The kids still did enjoy 30 minutes of special activities on the circus floor before we went to our seats such as sitting on a motorcycle, getting close to an elephant who was making a footprint with paint on paper, trying on costumes, dancing with a clown, etc. They also enjoyed the 2 hour show. I got misty eyed at the beginning when Ian was clapping his little hands together in sheer delight. His paid attention during the entire show. Nadia at times was turned around not watching. She really enjoyed the trapeeze artists. At the end Ian was crying because he didn't want to leave and because he wanted to ride an elephant.

I hadn't been to "the greatest show on earth" for more than 20 years. It has changed! When I was a child I remember it being a 3 ring circus. There was just 1 ring today, which was fine by me as I remember as a child struggling to know which ring I should be watching at a given moment. There wasn't one "ringmaster" per se this time. There were three women who sometimes shared that role, and at other times it was accomplished by the orchestra conducter and the clown. There weren't any lions, and I always remember a "lion tamer" part of the show. There were many familiar parts though- horses, camels, dogs, and elephants although no one was riding the horses, and I was used to stunts being done by people riding horses. No one was shot out of a cannon, but there were three motorcycles driving around in the steel ball. There was only one clown so they didn't have the "how many clowns can you fit in a car" stunt. All in all we had a great time.  Hopefully the next time we go Paul will be able to join us.