Wondrous things

This is my first time doing one of MamaKat’s writing prompts. We’re meant to “List your life’s Seven Wonders. Describe the most amazing 7 things you’ve seen with your own two eyes.” Now, my memory’s notoriously terrible and I thought and thought about the seven most amazing things I’ve seen, but the thing is, I’m pretty sure I don’t remember them. So I’m going to go with the first seven amazing things I came up with off the top of my head. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be coming up with even more amazing things I could’ve listed all week… except for number one, that’s the most amazing one of all the things I’ve seen and done, even though it’s trite and boring for a mom to list.

1. My kids being born. I know, I know… go ahead and roll your eyes at me, but I couldn’t not mention them could I? And it is amazing, The first time I saw the Boy as the nurse brought him up close to my face after a crazy labor and whirlwind c-section. I saw him and sighed in relief that he was ok, and then I did a double take, cause the bald, blue-eyed, porcelain-skinned baby I had been imagining was red, and scrunched-up and wrinkly, and had a headful of long, dark hair. Shocking! and Amazing! And the first time I saw the Girl drop out of me (literally) and I thought, I made you, I made you from scratch, and I brought you here into this world. I dare any of you to say childbirth isn’t amazing!

2. I’ve been very lucky to have travelled a lot in my life and there are many, many beautiful, amazing, wondrous places in the world (many of which I still haven’t seen). But the first time I went to New York as an adult, with my husband, we dropped our bags off at the airport and went strolling around the city straight off a nine hour intercontinental flight and… I don’t know if it was the jet-lag, the fact that we hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hour or the butt and jaw clenching cold that is New York in February, but I stopped in the middle of Broadway and turned slowly in a circle on the sidewalk and just took it all in. The smells, the energy, the people jostling me to get by, the lights… and it took my breath away.

3. Last year in Sao Paolo (Brazil) I saw the most amazing / ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my life: a dog in a stroller. A dog in a stroller. And that’s all I have to say on the subject.

4. My kids standing unassisted. (See how I just slipped another child-related one in there.) Our children do the most surprising / amazing things on a daily basis, but the first time they pull themselves up off the floor on their own and stand, my God, the sense of accomplishment, the surprise, the pride in their eyes, the fear (am I going to fall, what the heck am I doing?), the glee. Amazing.

5. Copacabana on New Year’s. If you ever get the chance, spend New Year’s in Rio de Janeiro, it’s so worth it. As the sun sets on December 31^st people go to the beach and put flowers in the water as an offering to Yemanja, the goddess of water and fishermen. Everyone dresses in white in Brazil for the New Year and as the evening progresses the beaches fill up with more and more people and by midnight you no longer see the beach, just a sea of people, ringing in the New Year in front of the Ocean. One of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen.

6. The first snowfall every year. Every winter I spend a great deal of time tweeting and posting statuses (statii?) on facebook about how much I effing hate the snow, shoveling snow, my car getting stuck in the snow, snow getting into my boots, socks, pants, neck, hair… but every year finds me staring in wonder at the sky when the first snowdrops feather down my upturned face.

7. My Grandma on her 101^st birthday, because really, she’s a hundred and one. She was born in 1910 almost a century before my own children, she was a flapper as a teenager, she remembers both World Wars, she rode horses cause there were no cars when she was little. I’m not even going to mention technology. And you know what’ll be even more amazing? My Grandma on her 102^nd birthday, next February.

I have pictures to post with almost all these entries, but it’s 1am here and I’m linking up without them. I’ll add them tomorrow, if anyone’s curious enough to come back!