Monday evening we had a fantastic thunderstorm. Conni and I were watching tv when I first heard the rain and thunder. I remembered when I was a kid we would go sit on our back covered patio and watch the thunderstorms, and my dad would try to catch cool pictures of the lightening and everything. I'm ashamed to say it took me about five minutes to say, "well, duh, why am I not taking Conni up to experience this too!"
So we headed upstairs and opened the front door. Unfortunately we don't have a covered patio like my parents, and with Conni fighting a cough I didn't want us out getting wet. But we settled on the floor in front of our glass door and watched the rain come down.
It was very impressive! The rain was coming down in sheets and the gutters were overflowing, and the thunder was rattling the windows. (I am a HUGE fan of big thunder like that - I find it very cool!) Conni did pretty good with the noise of the thunder. At first she was a little shaken by it, but then she remembered a story that we have called "Thunder Cake" by Patricia Polacco. (I don't know where it came from, but its on our shelf and its a very good read for kids who are upset by thunder. In the story, there is a little girl who is frightened by the thunder. The Grandmother consoles her by telling her that the storm is nothing more than the ingredients for a Thunder Cake. They work thru making the cake and by the time the storm is passed they are sitting down to a yummy treat. )
Conni really wanted to make a thunder cake, but I didn't have all the ingredients. So instead we sat and watched and jumped in pretend surprise every time the thunder sounded.
I love the smell of rain!! So after a bit watching the rain and hearing the thunder, we propped open the glass door and smelled the rain too. It was a little breezy, but not too chilly. But Conni wanted to wrap up in a blanket and cuddle. I was ok with that!! She ran to get a blanket while I sat by the wide open front door. After a minute or two she was asking for help so I went to go see what she was up to. She was in our bedroom, trying to remove our queen size down comforter so we would have a blanket big enough for both of us to wrap up in. I somehow convinced her to leave that blanket there and grabbed another from the closet.
We wrapped up and watched the storm some more and counted in between lightening and thunder. We talked about clouds and water and where rain comes from. (I dunno how well I explained it to a four year old, but she was happy with the answer!)
Eventually the storm settled down to just a steady rain. But we watched the storm for a good 40 minutes together! I hope we have many more thunderstorms and that Conni and I can cuddle up and watch them and talk together just like I did as a kid with my mom. It was a very fun evening!
