You Outshine the Morning Sun

Pippa

My parents arrived around 9:00 the next morning, as the kids were finishing up their breakfast. Cam had a soccer game in an hour and Molly was going with her grandparents for the day. We'd all meet up for dinner later. I tried to busy myself in the kitchen so I wouldn't have to sit down and talk with my parents. With four kids, there was always something to be done.

"So tell me more about your art therapy," I heard my mother ask Molly. I glanced over quickly, wondering her angle. Knowing my mother, she thought it was a sign of weakness. She didn't hear 'art', she heard 'therapy'.

"I go there once a week and I get to paint with really pretty paints and me and Ms. Laura talk," she explained, making her way through her Cheerios.

"And what do you talk about?" she probed.

Molly was oblivious her grandmother was digging. She was glad to have an audience. She shrugged. "A bunch of stuff."

"Like what?"

"Like how to use a strong voice and what to do if I get upset," Molly went on.

"You don't know what to do when you get upset?" she asked.

"Mother," I called from the kitchen, hoping to change the conversation. "Do you need anything to eat?"

"No thank you," she said, turning her attention back to Molly. "So what are you supposed to do when you get upset?"

"I"m supposed to take a deep breath and tell the other person clearly how I feel," she explained. Any person listening in on this conversation would just think it was a grandmother talking with her granddaughter. But really what was happening was that my grandmother was talking at me. She couldn't believe I was apparently doing such a terrible job with my child that she had to see an art therapist.

"That's interesting, Molly," she said. "I didn't know there were things like art therapy."

I sighed and started unloading the dishwasher. Lin walked in with Felix, done with his feeding. He had a burp cloth on his shoulder, clutching his son to his chest as he patted his back. Fatherhood looked good on Lin. He gently scratched at my hip with his fingers as he set the bottle down on the counter.

"Will you hurry Molly along please?" I whispered to him, and he nodded.

"Molly, are you about done?" Lin asked her as he sat down at the table with everyone.

"Almost," she said, finishing up her last bites.

"Okay," he said. "Go brush your teeth and get ready. You have a big day with your grandparents."

I disappeared to the bedroom and decided to take a shower. The hot water felt good on my muscles, easing the tension. I wondered if I could convince Lin to give me a back massage later. After I was finished, I wrapped my wet hair up in a towel and walked out to the bedroom. I changed into jeans and a shirt, then went back to the living room. Molly and my parents had since left. Lin was cleaning up the breakfast dishes as the babies hung out on the play mat and Cam watched cartoons.

"Did Molly brush her teeth?" I asked Lin and he said she had. I checked my watch. We needed to leave in about twenty minutes to make Cam's game.

"Cam, you need to get a move on," Lin called to his daughter. "We need to leave soon."

"Okay," she responded dismissively, eyes on the screen.

"You okay?" Lin asked as I poured myself more coffee.

"Fine," I said. "My mother was being kind of passive-aggressive this morning."

"How so?" he asked.