Oh, my girl. She dilly-dallies like no one I've even seen before. And today was no exception. After leaving late for work two days in a row, I was a tad frustrated to get out the door late yet again. Granted, we were only going to workout with a friend, but still. Get a move on!
I turned to say something to her and realized she was 30 feet behind me picking a dandelion. "It's for you, mommy, because you're pretty. Dada give flowers to mommy and Pink cuz mommy's pretty."
My reaction? "Thank you, sweetie. Now let's just set that pretty *cough*messy* flower right here so we can find it when we get home, ok? Now, come on and hurry up!"
When we got home, I was collecting our many belongings from the car while she sat in her car seat calling to me. I ignored her. Finally I unbuckled her seat belt and looked over to see the prettiest little bird sitting on some kind of electrical box.
When I mentioned the bird, she smiled with satisfaction and I realized she had been trying to tell me about it all along. I had missed her small voice pointing me toward the wonders of creation; there was too much hustle and bustle in my mind.
After a brief conversation about the bird, we headed for the front door. When I noticed she wasn't standing next to me, I looked over and saw her again about 30 feet behind me, pointing to the grass. With no dandelion in sight, I thought, "Geez! What in the world is so important now?! Can't she see I'm trying to get in the house?!" Frustrated by yet another delay, I walked over to her. She made no excuse for her distraction or delay. She simply squealed, "Mama! It's a ladybug crawling on the grass!"
As I looked down past the sea of blonde curls to that tiny ladybug, it dawned on me: I've been too busy doing laundry, putting away suitcases, buying groceries, hosting family, returning to work, and thinking about putting away Christmas decorations sometime before Easter. I haven't stopped to (carefully) smell the dandelions that grace my lawn, or take in the birds that land near me, or walk slowly enough to see all the little life around me.
What a shame. And part of my mental busyness has been feeling the pressure of some kind of perfect, witty, post-holiday-break blog post. Instead I'm posting about the lesson that a two year old girl with long, flowing, blonde angel hair taught me, and rather than cross off any more things on my to-do list, I'm going to go watch her sleep.
More to come after I've seen a few more ladybugs. Cheers!
2 comments:
Um, perfect New Year post! We could all use a bit of slowing down and listening to our little ones. I've actually been thinking about this lately as I constantly tell Squeaker, "Just a moment sweetheart, Mama just needs to finish doing these dishes/ feeding sister/ tidying up," ect, ect, repeat, repeat... Poor baby, thanks for the follow up reminder that I DO need to stop and small the roses...or dandelions.
Such a sweet reminder of what we miss every day. Thanks for sharing. :)
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