7 Acts of Kindness

I didn't realize it's been so long since my last post. Monkey has been doing better with sleep up until the past few nights. Someone tell him to stop growing up so fast. Poor kid is cutting a tooth every time I turn around and the only thing to help him sleep at night is Motrin. I don't want him in pain but he's going to grow up addicted to the taste of infant Motrin. Or else cut all his teeth before he hits 1 and then become and well-behaved perfect child. Hahaha yeah right. He's a walker now and has been for almost a month. He would much rather walk than crawl even if it means falling down along the way. He has no fear of picking himself back up and continuing on his merry way. I wish I had that kind of stamina and motivation. I think it's a lesson to all of us that life comes with bumps and bruises, some more serious than others but somehow, we can find a way to pick ourselves up and keep going. We may not be happy about it as Monkey often cries and screams getting up again but we continue.

Running has been a huge stress relief for me. And running for Sophie and Madigan has been amazing. Did my first 5k ever and I actually can't wait to do another one! I can honestly see myself doing a half marathon. Running the whole thing yea right but I will finish it! And not for me. I will finish it for Sophie, Madigan, Morgan, Sadie, Chrissi and Jack. And their family. I know this is a difficult time for them and whatever I or we can do to help bring a smile will be done.

That brings me to acts of kindness. Chrissi has asked that we do 7 Acts of Kindness for Sophie's 7th Birthday which would be tomorrow. Even though Sophie isn't with us, we can do 7 kind things for her memory. I told our class that we are doing these acts of kindness because Sophie was such a kind person. Several of them nodded and shared kind things Sophie had done. As a class we brainstormed things they could do. I loved listening to their ideas: not fight for a whole day with my little sister, listen to my mom and dad for once, pick up my toys, clean my room, do someone else's chores tonight, read to a sibling, hold a door, give flowers to people, write letters to family and friends far away, bake cookies, play with someone who's lonely, give someone a hug, be nice to someone that doesn't have a lot of friends. The list goes on. What acts of kindness will you be doing to honor Sophie's memory?

I have already started mine. Two boys were arguing on the playground last week as I passed by running. I stopped to ask what was going on. Their mom just looked beat. The boys were about 5 or 6 and told me they were fighting over their toys. They then heard the app on my phone tell me to keep moving. So they wanted to know why I was running. I told them about Sophie and they asked to do some of my run with me so they could run for Sophie. I passed by the boys again today and they shouted out "Keep running for Sophie!" Monkey and I went to the grocery store tonight and I was looking for another act of kindness for us to do together (not much an 8 month old can do except give someone a smile). I was in the self checkout and a man got in line behind me with a pepper and a bottle of water. He was fumbling for cash so I told him I would pay for it. He was shocked and said he should pay for what I got because I had a baby. I gave him a card explaining about Sophie and he waited for another person to come to the self checkout so he could pay for them. I have no idea if it kept going after that but we got to share Sophie's memory with some people tonight. Monkey even played his part. Leaving the store we saw a woman who had obviously had a long day at work and she looked a little stressed. Monkey looked at her and started laughing and smiling. She looked at us and smiled back. He tried to get her to pick him up and she took him and continued to smile. She thanked us for the smile and I passed along another card for Sophie. Tomorrow will be a sad day yes but it will also be filled with happiness as we try to spread kindness to one another and make someone's day a little brighter!