"Let's have a picnic!" My three-year-old gleefully unpacks her half-eaten sandwich from her lunchbox as we drive home from her pre-school. "It's a perfect day."
She'll say this even when the wind is blasting our car so hard that it rocks from side to side. But picnics can not be missed. Moved indoors, sure. But never, ever missed.
So, using her sandwich as a starter, we pack up chips, drinks, yogurt and a pile of napkins into our favorite picnic basket and head out.
Often I'll glance back to the house longingly, wondering if I can convince her that a table and chairs is much better for a mommy who came late to parenting. I envision a sore back and knees that complain about sitting on the floor. Then there is the joy of getting back up to my feet after my legs have become an old car that needs warming up.
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But within five minutes I've become the picnic advocate. We quickly abandon sitting, and lay back like spoiled royalty, daintily sharing the bag of chips.
From our vantage point the leaves wave with great enthusiasm and I tell my daughter that this is how trees dance. Their partner is the wind and they know all kinds of dances. An aspiring ballerina, she loves to hear about other dancers, but even she is skeptical about dancing trees.
A big wind brings on the jitterbug, I tell her, sitting up to take a drink of water. Gusts are definitely tangos. A light wind is like a slow dance.
"Like ballet!" she squeals and is suddenly up, dancing on the blanket, her toes scattering bread crumbs everywhere and crushing a few stray chips. Someday she won't sit out here with me. She'll be more interested in playing with children her own age, in starting a secret club, in having me pack the picnic basket and stay inside. But that day is not today. Today it's our picnic.
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"Like ballet," I agree with a smile. And I'm standing beside her, lifting her in the air like a proper princess ballerina and I realize she was right. This is a perfect day for a picnic.
Winter D. Prosapio
Winter's writing has appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Mommies Musings, the New Braunfels Herald Zeitung, the San Antonio Express-News, Working Mother Magazine and numerous websites including who is bella, long story short and slashfilm.com.
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