3 Hours to Make an Impression

When your friend, who is a mom and exec has a rare 24 hour window to canoodle with her husband in Vegas, you say, “yes” when she asks you to babysit for a mere 3 hours – at least Val, Cuz, Betty and I do.

Not only does it feel good to help friends, it is even better to spend a few hours with Harper and Hudson. In the short 5 years since Harper arrived on the planet, she has tied a lasso around my heart and held it. When her mom Marci was pregnant with Hudson, I thought how could baby number 2 possibly hold a candle to ‘lil Harper? Dumb question. Hudson has enriched all of our lives, at a time in our lives when we can really appreciate it – our 40s – when we are appreciating everything – our friends, our health, our fortunate zip codes, our careers our, aging parents. Twenty years ago, I was too self-involved and unaware to reflect and savor little moments and people – back then, there was so much more time…

Time. What shall I do with the 3 hours I have with H1 and H2? A lot of the decisions I make that require me to take action circle back to my mom and Alzheimer’s – and the importance of making memories (thanks Marci). I’ve got 3 hours to fill with the little Richards and I do not want an iPad involved.

Kurt and Marci have a lot of house held up by a lot of walls. So, why not paint a picture to chronicle our day together? I had a 2′x 3′ canvas in the garage with an absolute heinous attempt of I don’t know what – leaves on a poop brown background. Anyway…I painted a base coat over it, gathered-up a select pallet of color coordinated paints, brushes and a GINORMOUS drop cloth.

I got there for the changing of the guard. I was relieving Cuz and Val. They thought I was a little crazy to paint with the kids and Brian suggested I shelve the project. I left everything outside so the kids wouldn’t see the supplies. When Cuz and Val left, I sat down with Harper and told her about the fun project I had for today. We sat down on the steps where I told her my concerns about painting with Hudson. I wanted him to be included of course, but did not want to damage or stain anything at the house. She said, very seriously, that her and Hudson paint and draw a lot and as long as we watched him it would be okay.

So we went out back, dropped the drop cloth and pulled out the paints. Harper wanted to get the paints organized, and she squeezed them all out with great care into their respective bowls. She made the first brush stroke in silver, then a dab here and a dab there with a sponge. Hudson sat on a chair drinking milk just wanting to be with us, but showing no interest in painting. This was great! If only Brian the pessimist could see us now; he’d eat his words. Feeling smug and happy didn’t last long because a big wind caught the drop cloth and upended the paints. Harper screamed, “IT’S RUINNNNNEEEEDDDDD!” Hudson, completely unaffected, did nothing and I ran to grab the airborne drop cloth.

Crap.

I would not let this more than minor snafu ruin my plan. There seemed to be less wind on the other side of the house. I set-up everything again. Things were going much more smoothly until Hudson picked-up a brush and pretty much painted over everything Harper had done. Harper screamed, “IT’S RUINNNNNEEEEDDDDD!” Followed by, “That’s okay, we’ll paint another one.” When I told her that was all I had, she said, “I’m done painting.” I was too.

We hung-out in the den for a while. About an hour later, I painted a few hearts on the canvas. Then, I put it on the mantle. Harper liked how I “arted-it-up.” We both agreed mom and dad would like our painting.

I saw Harper a short week later at her 5th birthday party. We were all in the kitchen together having a great time. I hear Harper calling to me..”Kat-leen, Kat-leen!!!” She points to our painting and says, “Remember the time we made that painting?”

Heart full. Memory made.