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Through the fairy doors

I am blessed with an awesome family and excellent friends. On the B.C.
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I am blessed with an awesome family and excellent friends. On the B.C. Day long weekend, we went to our friend's cabin at a local lake for a work bee to build stairs (I did not help), paint trim (I did help) and put up new siding (no help from me here).

My parents have been watching the kids during these last few weeks of summer and have been a great help to us in many ways. They agreed to keep the kids out at the lake while we had to go back to Prince George to work on our many projects with increasingly early deadlines.

I am trying to finish my thesis and that takes a certain amount of time without interruptions. As you can well imagine, time without interruptions is a precious commodity in our house.Because my mother is a genius, she bought the kids little fairy doors so they could make fairy houses in the woods and decorate them. They had little tiny mailboxes with them and they started writing to their fairies in the woods. Magically, they ended up getting responses.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, more delightful than watching a child experience the joy of magic. Our friends have four daughters and they are lovely girls and rapidly getting older. The two youngest daughters started writing to our kids as the fairies in the woods and left them presents and made up names for the fairies. They were all so excited: our kids for having the magical friends and the girls for being the agents of the excitement and wonder. It was like the circle of life except no animals killing and eating each other. Maybe that was a bad analogy.

Perhaps that is the appeal about having children; the ability to pass along some of the magic and wonder from your own childhood. For myself, one of the best things about being a parent is watching them gain confidence and grow as human beings and, also, talk in their sleep. Now that is magical.

I have two kids with vastly different personalities. When our son talks in his sleep, he is usually working out a problem that he has had during the day: an issue with LEGO breaking, Minecraft not working right or his sister not leaving him alone. He will ask questions with nonsense language and is easily comforted with us saying, "It will be okay. We'll talk about it in the morning."

Then he goes back to sleep and snores loudly.Our daughter is pretty much always angry even when she's sleeping. When she talks in her sleep, she is usually always shouting "No!" at the top of her lungs. It is enormously funny.

Watching excited little faces with big, surprised eyes discover that magic is real, is the best present that anyone can get. I am enormously grateful that I get to be a witness to their awe and wonder.