Friday morning, Julia and I wake up on a sunny yet chilly day, since it’s winter time down here. We begin going about our business, me making coffee and Julia drawing on her green rubber play mat. We’re listening to some delightfully inspiring music by my new favorite band. I finished doing the little bit of dishes which had been left dirty from the day before. I got my cup of coffee ready. I turn around to observe what Julia was doing. I grabbed my phone and began taking pictures. She was busily playing with some colored patches of fabric from a toy she has, spreading them out, piling them up, folding them up into one single colorful roll of cloth, and starting all over again. At that instant, I heightened my senses to observe the ambiance in which this was happening. There was beautiful music playing, mom taking coffee, and no TV background noise. Julia was experimenting with free play, letting her imagination fly. I thought to myself how wonderful it is to allow free play to happen.

As I was taking some more pictures of her, I realized that there might be a Make on the make. I decided to put together a Flipagram, starting out with those photos of that Friday morning, and using a whole bunch of other photos I had in my camera roll, something I’d been meaning to do since I stumbled upon Flipagram. So as Julia played freely with her little unusual toys, I played with mine, my Iphone. I wasn’t sure what the name of that Make might be. I waited until it was ready to decide, like I so often do with my blog posts. I chose a beautiful song by brazilian singer/songwriter Caetano Veloso to be the soundtrack of my Make. It suited it perfectly.

Once I was finished, I watched it a couple of times, and a few times more. I felt a warmth in my heart and soul. I showed it to Julia. She asked to watch it again and again. Only then did I realize that this little Make of ours, Julia’s and mine, was a snapshot of our lives, mother and daughter, living together, finding happiness together every day in the little things, moment by moment. I felt somewhat proud of myself as a mom. Kind of like I was actually succeeding at propitiating the elements of a happy childhood to my beloved little girl. That’s how the title of my Make and this blog post came to be. It is not my intention, though, to sound as if we don’t have bad days, or face difficulties. Parenting is no easy thing. Yet, it is mornings like that one that may give us a real measure of how truly happy we are.

The following poster goes together with the Flipagram. I dedicate this Make / post to my beloved daughter, Julia, who makes me a better person every single day.