Appreciate the Little Things

It was a cold morning today. The kind of cold that makes you snuggle under the sheets with your loved one even more than usual. My son enjoys snuggle time on days like today.  Of course that was short lived as he started to climb out of the bed and drag us to his chilly playroom.  With a hot cup of coffee in hand, I spent the day playing pretend with my son as he grabbed plastic food from his toy kitchen and shove the toy phone in my hand. It was my turn to order the pretend pizza. He still laughs every time I say "We will have a large pepperoni pizza please!"

Today I will not worry about the loads of laundry that need to be washed or the dinner I need to prep. I will not worry about the tutorial about PHP sitting on my laptop waiting to be watched. I have chosen to focus on the little things today. Play time with my son, play time with my son, and a little more play time with my son.  We will read books and paint the white pumpkin I bought for him. We will play with his Thomas train set and he will instruct me on how to properly puff while pushing the die cast trains on the track: there is a right and wrong way to do it apparently.

The initial slowing down of our day can feel unnerving but if you sit with it for just a little while, the good feelings quickly take over and you wish you had done it sooner.  As I painted my side of the pumpkin I looked up at my son and thought "My god you are so much bigger than you were yesterday!" He is no longer the baby we brought home from the hospital that chilly October afternoon. He is a true toddler with lanky legs and his father's expressions.

I will make more of an effort to appreciate the little things.  I don't want to make the mistake of looking back and realizing I missed everything that truly mattered.