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Perfect Moment Monday: Tessa guest posts

Tessa and I have collaborated on our joint Perfect Moment, which you’ll find below after a bit of a setup.

On a designated day each week, our Vino Support Group gets together, kids and all. Over the summer we moms take turns planning that afternoon’s activities. A hike, painting pottery, running through the town fountain — often followed by Happy Hour at the planner’s house.

One day this month, my friend Rose chose roller skating at a local rink. Tessa has long been graceful and speedy on her roller-blades around the neighborhood, so she was especially excited. I opted not to don skates, preferring to be the mom who stays with all the stuff and who watches the others go round and round while reminiscing about sitting on the sidelines during middle school.

Tessa and I had a special bonding moment toward the end of our skate session. I was curious what she thought of it, so I asked her to write her version. She recounts two stories, two perfect moments she had that day — and I even caught one of them on video.

Tessa says:

One crisp afternoon we were so happy to be able to go to the BEST place to be. That day it was Skate City. That is MY favorite place, but that is my opinion and my brother Reed would not agree with me.

There was music (Macklemore!) and games. There was food that my mom, Lori, would not let me eat (she calls it “crap” so whatever). Anyway I got my skates on and I started to dance and my mom was having fun watching me. That made me smile. We kept having so much fun going round and round. I have two funny stories to tell. Here is the first.

The workers at the rink offered us a game every 20 minutes. One was a race so I raced against my mom’s friend, Rose. I was winning as usual and as I got close to a cone I saw Rose right on my tail. For a second I was not looking where I was going and I fell forward on my hands. Rose was behind me and couldn’t stop from falling over me. I was laughing so hard she was worried I was crying but I was not.

We both got out of the rink and we were all OK.

So that was my first here is my second.

It was my last skate and I was having lots of fun. I’m laughing and I see my brother’s friend fall so I go over there but he is totally fine. I see my pretty mom over there. I go see her and right as I get there I hit the wall and I just drop, I’m not sure why.ย  It was funny and very unusual. I waited on the floor looking up for about 5 seconds and Mom comes rushing to see what happened. I see her head pop over the wall, all worried-looking. She tells me I’m fine and we started to laugh. For the rest of the afternoon we would then laugh and make jokes about that time when I fell.

That was my perfect moment Monday.

I saw Tessa go down just as she was heading toward me. She simply dropped as she approached the wall in front of me — very uncharacteristic of her. Worried, I peeked over, fearing what angle I would see her bones in. But she was just lying on the rink, smiling up at me. I laughed with relief and told her she was all right.

Tessa continued down the wall, falling in the same fashion every 20 feet or so. I followed her around the rink, poking my head over the wall, repeating our intimate and funny moment over and over again. It’s the tween version of drop-the-toy-and-mom-will-pick-it-up-over-and-over-again.

I could see how much this moment meant to her. Which means the wall-fall was meaningful to me, too. Later that night at Rose’s Happy Hour, Tessa and I would catch each others’ eye and smile our secret smile, remembering our bonding moment over the rink wall.

roller blades

~~~~~

Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.

On the last Monday of each month we engage in mindfulness about something that is right with our world. Everyone is welcome to join.

To participate in Perfect Moment Monday:

  • Follow LavenderLuz.com.
  • Write up your own Perfect Moment and post it on your blog (or other site).
  • Use LinkyTools below to enter your name (or blog name), the URL of your Perfect Moment post, and a thumbnail image if desired. (NEW: you can now put LinkyTools on your own Perfect Moment Monday post. Just click Get the Code Here and add the code to your own post. All the linkies will show up on your blog, too.)
  • Visit the Perfect Moments of others and let the writers know you were there with some comment currency.

With your Perfect Moment post , you may place this button on your blog (in the post, on the sidebar, or both).What Perfect Moment have you recently been aware of?

The next Perfect Moment Monday event will begin July 28.


24 Responses

  1. I love it! We drove past the skating rink today, and I smiled to myself, remembering so many all night skates with my BFF. The two of you have perfectly captured my past and present relationships with skating. Sidelines and falling. ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. How fun! And how awesome that Tessa is joining in on your Perfect Moments!

    We had our first two skating adventures this summer – two skating birthday parties. So far, my girl is unimpressed, because the skates dig into her ankles and rub away the skin.

  3. Sadly, i lost my epic comment when trying to link up but I love love love that you and Tessa had such an awesome bonding moment. I can remember skating to so many songs…my cool-then comb hanging out of my back pocket…thank you for bringing me back. Love love love that your daughter was ยฅour guest-post tonight.

  4. I used to go roller skating a LOT. We’d walk down to the local rink and rent skates, not roller blades, because they didn’t have those back then. That’s where I learned to dance the “Hokey Pokey.” In fact the first time I did it WITHOUT roller skates on my feet, I thought it was really lame! I vividly remember my mom watching from the sidelines to make sure I was okay as I skated around and around.

    What a perfect moment. Tessa is turning out to be an awesome writer – I hope she keeps it up! ๐Ÿ™‚

  5. Tessa and Lori,

    I remember skating at Skate City when I was growing up. I loved the smooth surface (so much better than the bumpy sidewalk), the music, the cute boys, and just hanging out with my friends. I LOVED your stories.

    Thank you both for sharing your Perfect Moments!

  6. Great debut Tessa! Falling can be so funny, can’t it? So fabulous to hear about you and your mom having your moments together. Thank you for sharing!!

  7. That moment of falling, and knowing that your parent will be there not just to pick you up, but to reassure you that you ARE alright, even if you didn’t know you were already: PERFECT. Love this so much, both of you! Congrats Tessa on your debut! ๐Ÿ™‚

  8. I love the laughing after the falling! ๐Ÿ˜€ ๐Ÿ˜€ Great stories! (And also, your mom calling that food “crap” — that also made me laugh.)

  9. Wow….great job, Tessa. And I love that you are celebrated a Perfect Moment Monday together. And…you could’t pay this mama to get on roller skates. No way, no how!

  10. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! I love what T did to you…I mean the deliberate falling and getting Mummy to look over thing.. it is just something only those-in-the-moment would be able to laugh upon and cherish.

    BTW, Tessa is pretty expressive. I actually giggled at this: ” That is MY favorite place, but that is my opinion and my brother Reed would not agree with me.”

    ๐Ÿ™‚

  11. Yes! Both of our PMM have to do with rollerblades — my kid also LOVES her rollerblades. Me? Not so much. Back in the day, I could roller*skate*, but my tailbone wouldn’t like me to don those again.

  12. I can totally hear Tessa saying this whole post.

    I have a knee (old roller skating accident) that tells me when the weather is about to change. I thought about trying out for the derby dolls but I think I have PTSD from that fateful night in my senior year.

    If the roller skates chafe, try using duct tape over the “hot spots” before they become blisters. I know it sounds weird, but years of roller skating (yeah, even in the woods – that’s how weird I was) and hiking taught me that it won’t hurt coming off your feet (no hair). I now travel with a small roll of hot pink zebra striped duct tape to help prevent blisters when I’m out of town in good-looking but not-practical business shoes.

  13. Yay for Tessa’s debuet here and shared mother/ daughter Perfect Moments! I agree with Mel, great writing Tessa! I too felt like I was there and also loved reading both of your perspectives (in your own words) about the same (awesome-sounding) event!

    I am so sorry I missed PPM this month. I broke my streak! I can’t remember the last time, if ever, I missed one since I started participating two years ago. It wasn’t for lack of perfect moments, just lack of time. With the Chicago Public Schools teachers’ strike last Fall, the kids just finally got out of school on Monday and we have been busy, busy… So one of my perfect moments for June has been finally being able to begin our summer as a family! I hope to be back on track and link up next month, as there are so many perfect moments during summer vacation to capture. ๐Ÿ™‚

  14. What a lovely idea! We don’t really appreciate moments for what they are. After all, every little bit of happiness makes this world a better place, right?

  15. Hi Lori and Tessa,
    Such a heart warming mom-baby bonding. It must feel great for Tessa to be a guest blogger on her mom’s blog. Congratulations Tessa!. Look forward to seeing many more posts from this very guest blogger.

  16. Indeed perfection does exist in some very ordinary moments. Thanks for sharing this tender vignette and the sweet reminder that sometimes all it takes to experience perfection is to open our eyes, ears, and hearts to notice.

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