Love by the Limbs

For the past few days a 6-yo has been sleeping with his parents instead of his siblings, due to nightmares and other scary things..like his brothers!

Yesterday, he was lying between his dad and mom and I pulled him near me for a cosy hug. But he always feels the need to showcase his loyalty to his mom somehow (to ensure he gets the next meal, maybe). 

Then he turned his torso to be perpendicular to both of us and while having both hands on me, wrapped his legs on his mom's tummy and declared-

"With my hands I'm hugging Appa, with my legs I'm lugging Amma!" and promptly went to sleep.

Adolescenting by Painting

During a workshop in my sons school, we were guided to do a watercolour painting of a tree with colour themes set by the facilitator and asked to pen our thoughts on the theme of 'Parenting for Adolescents'

"The earth came first, the sky and the rest followed. 

The seed came from the tree, took root towards the earth and reached out to the sky, as it was always meant to!

But for the sapling to grow to a young tree and then mature to an adult, it needs all the water, air, nutrients, exposure to the sun, the elements and the seasons and quite importantly the space to shape into the tree that it would become. 

Remove one, it will remain a stunted tree or just a sapling. A parent tree cannot provide cool shade to protect the sapling and expect growth. The environment, the nourishment and the space is needed for full growth."