My Smiling Heart

Shawn had a great night’s sleep last night! He was out from 8:30 pm – 8:30 am with one quick wake up – phew!

Shawn and I met Heena and Veer in South Barrington for a free event sponsored by WTTW Kids: Readers are Leaders (a PBS television station).  Miss Lori’s Campus was presenting “sing alongs, reading, and engaging activities for kids 3-8.” AND, the first 200 kids would get a free children’s book.  Heena and I agreed that even though Shawna and Veer are still a little young for the intended audience, it wouldn’t hurt to see what it was like, especially since it was free.  There was a lot of dancing and singing, which our boys did not participate in, and Miss Lori preached the importance of being healthy by eating right, exercising, and getting enough sleep.  The show was highly energetic and, although the venue could have held more people, it turned out to be a little overwhelming for both of the boys.  Shawn went into people-watching over-drive and Veer started climbing up Heena with tears in his eyes.  They stepped outside about half-way through the show so Veer could take a break and get a snack from their car.  Even though Shawn wasn’t exactly involved in the audience participation, we stayed the whole time and even went through the line at the end to get our free book, Judy the Elephant by Laura Gates Galvin, and a few other freebees on our way out.  (Oddly enough, almost of the coupons that they were giving out were expired and not just recently, but by a few months!  Oh, well, I probably wouldn’t have used them anyway.)  We also got to meet Miss Lori when we got to the end of the line.  She gave us a postcard with her picture on it and the autographed it for us.  Some families were taking their pictures with her, but I knew Shawn wouldn’t go for it, so I thanked her for the great show and we headed out the door.  We met up with Heena and Veer in the parking lot and told them about the giveaways, but Veer was content in his car-seat eating his snack.  Perhaps the event was still a little too much for our boys, but we can’t complain too much about a free afternoon out!

For dinner, we went to Shaw’s Crab House to celebrate Raj’s best month EVER at his office!  The meal was wonderful, but the best part was when Shawn got compliments from a woman dining nearby.  She stopped by our table as she was leaving the restaurant and pointed out how rarely people take the time to tell others how nice their children are and that she wanted to let us know how much she enjoyed sitting by us and watching him smile and play.  Though I don’t remember most of her exact words, one line has stuck with me:  “He made my heart smile!”  Raj said he didn’t know if I could smile any bigger or have my eyes light up any more after she said that.  Though we have had people stop by our tables at restaurants to smile at Shawn before, it never gets old.  This woman knew exactly what to say.  It made my night.