BRIGHT MATTER

Had the three wee ones over yesterday afternoon and evening while their mother went off for an evening of rare comparative freedom to meet with some old friends from her younger days around here. It gets stranger each year how simply being in the presence of small impossibly cute beings like KMM (currently 7-6-6) can draw the energy right out of my body much faster and more thoroughly than hard labor. I could split firewood for hours, take a short break before some gardening, then take a long walk before lunch, but with these three, even if they are reading or quietly playing (they’re well behaved young ladies for the most part, and only rarely leave the galaxy), there is some other powerful cosmic force at play, which I hereby dub Bright Matter. Scientists haven’t discovered this aspect of reality yet, they’re so involved in proving the existence of Dark Matter; wait till they have granddaughters.

If, while (and only while) the three are at last quietly occupied I sneak upstairs to do a bit of editing (as fate will twist it, I'm swamped with work these days), within a minute or two one of the trio quietly comes up and sits on my knee, wants to watch, wants to try (it is the highest crime to discourage such wishes; anyway, granting them is infinitely more pleasant than work), then there are two, then three, and less and less of whatever I was doing. Soon the girls are learning how to use the mouse to color some pages on a kiddie website they ask me to find for them, and as they become absorbed in that I drift downstairs to ponder our new garden, which Mr. H (who has the big fruit tree nursery upmountain) over the weekend dug up with his power shovel and cleared out all the rocks (there's a big pile of them over in the garden corner), pulled out the stubborn stumps that were poking up here and there (the extent of the cherry tree roots was astonishing!) (there's a big pile of them over in another corner) and ripped up the deep bamboo roots (they're piled on top of the stumps), all to be dealt with at some point, when the Bright Matter index is lower.

Next we have to put up the monkey/deer/wild pig fence, which should be interesting, but plans evaporate in the presence of Bright Matter as here come the trio again, Watchadoin, so we do some fireworks, it's dusky enough, but the twins don't yet know about things like upwind/downwind (we have to learn that, too!), so while I'm sparkler-lighting for two sisters, the other sister's first sparkler sends all its smoke into her face and she has no idea what to do while holding a bright flame in her own hand, other than to quietly stand there and breathe/not breathe as best she can, so abruptly doesn't like fireworks anymore - every moment is HUGE at that age.

Then we feed the three and put them to bed; Echo goes into the bath and I go softly into the upstairs silence for some quiet reading until the three fall asleep, when I can at last raid the fridge to my own content, but my peace is interrupted as four small feet come pounding up the stairs, yelling Mitsuki's nose is bleeding! I go downstairs and Mitsuki is lying on the floor holding a softball of tissues to her bloody nose and looking very serious, so I assure her all is ok, take her to the bathroom sink (keep your head tilted back!) to wash off, tell her to lie down on her back and be still-- then Echo comes out of the bath and they're all up and excited to tell her about the whole bloody adventure from start to finish and then some. They’ll be awake for a while now; amidst the new and intense waves of Bright Matter I ponder having a large strong coffee so maybe I can make it all the way to bed.