Mommy Magic

Logan received a cool gift from her Uncle Tom - a box of magic tricks. She was instantly intrigued, but like most things that require parent assistance, I was off to a good start at mulling over how and when I would find time to manage this box of tricks in the middle of the regular ones I perform daily! Not only did this box require me to find some time, but I also needed to read, learn, practice, demonstrate and then teach the tricks to my youngster. Not an easy feat. Maybe it has been due to relief following the end of our birthday rush (officially tomorrow – don’t want to minimize Riley’s big day), but I have been lax in doing pretty much everything this week and have tried to get into their gifts with them instead. So we tore into the magic tricks.

Luckily for me, as I was reading the instructions, I heard myself say aloud, “It is far better to perform one or two tricks really well for your audience, instead of performing them all badly.” Logan seemed to get this, so we started with one and I had some back up for not delving into all of them at once. We picked the ‘balls fall through the cups’ trick. As Logan and Riley brushed their American Dolls’ hair, I read through the instructions step-by-step, so I could learn the trick myself. I had no idea that they were even watching since they were chatting away with each other. I read the steps out loud – pretty much anyone looking on would have known exactly what I was doing and what the “magic” really was. I won’t try to write about it all, it won’t make sense. The final step calls for a magical tap on the overturned stack of cups and then you lift the stack to reveal a ball that has magically appeared. My two girls caught this move and you would have thought I made a real fairy princess appear in our kitchen. Their reaction was priceless.

They screamed and said “Whoa!” Their eyes were as big as saucers. Their mouths wide open. I heard things like: “Mom, how did you do that?” and “You’re really doing magic!” It was nothing less than awesome. And for as smart as they are, I felt great knowing that I still had the simple power to amaze them, to have them think I was pretty darn cool and even a little magical. Time is fleeting…what was I thinking while wondering how I’d make the time for this box of tricks? Every second was worth it for those innocent reactions that only a four and six year old could have.

Of course reality stuck cold and hard with in minutes; Logan didn’t want to share and Riley wanted a turn with the cups. A humdinger of a fight ensued. But it didn’t matter to me; I was just a happy mom, basking in her magical moment.