Being There

I spent a large portion of the day today outside on the field at the girls' school.
It was Field Day, of course.
And the schedule of events, as it were, planned for the older kids of the school to enjoy their time on the field for 2 hours of the morning, and the younger kids would take 2 hours of the afternoon.
Now, since I have one of each enrolled at the school, we spent 4 hours on the field, plus a little extra time at the end of the day before we could leave.
It was a loooooong day.
And it was sunny and warm, making it a perfect day for Field Day, but making me extra tired.
Not that that's anything new.
Now when I was in school, we had Track and Field Day, where you had to sign up for events and compete against your classmates. And the winners got blue and red ribbons, and everyone else got participatory ribbons. I have a ton of the formerly mentioned ribbons stashed somewhere at my mom's house.
But it's different here. Or maybe everywhere now.
Today, the kids just played games with their classmates outside, rotating from one event to the next. And there were no winners or losers, but just kids playing. It was really fun.
Being there for such a long time, I was able to do a lot of observing. Mostly of my kids, but behind my sunglasses, I could see quite a number of interesting things. Most of which I will not mention on here.
My oldest, I got to see completely NOT paying attention to any of the games, even though she was right out in the middle of them all. For the most part, she just laughed with her friends, twirled her hair, and danced to the music that was playing.
I did get to see her taking special care of a little guy in her class that has special needs. I hear about him all the time, but had never met him until today. It was precious to see my girl looking after someone who needed extra help and treating him like he was her best friend. It made a momma proud.
Later on in the day, the 8 year old was in full force.
She, unlike her sister, was completely into every game, and paying careful attention to every move made by her own team as well as her opponents.
She's my little athlete.
I watched her run as hard as she could, laugh with her friends, and be a great helper for her teacher.
And ironically, neither one of the girls got in a fight with anyone. They didn't argue or talk back. They didn't tattle or even talk ugly to anyone. And I even caught them BOTH sharing. That's right. All things that I try my best to teach them, but just don't see a lot of...at home. I'm glad to see that they really know how to do these things.
Anyway, both girls were so glad that I was there. And thanked me many times for coming.
It's funny.
I wasn't helping at any game.
I wasn't passing out popsicles or changing the CDs.
I wasn't even that noticeable. (well except for the overstuffed stroller I was pushing and the two children I carted around with me all day.)
I was just there.
Watching.
Waving.
Smiling.
And it occurred to me in a strong way today, that sometimes...
being a mother is just being present.
Just being there.
And that made the whole day worth it.