Slow Down Right Now

After a whirlwind month of March, I took a break and took a breath after Mikey T's birthday.  I was looking at pictures of Emma Kate and realized that she is not a baby anymore. Um, excuse, me?? When was someone going to tell me that?  I knew it would happen, but it is shocking when you actually realize it has happened.  She is has a full vocabulary and is completely potty-trained.  She can entertain herself and for the most part knows that markers and scissors are for paper, not hair and walls.  She has official chores and is actually helpful.  It is exciting and devastating at the same time.
So, after a crazy month full of moving, egg hunts, Easter, basketball, playdates, family visits, and birthday celebrations, we actually had a few days where we had absolutely nothing to do.  That is when I decided to be a "yes" mommy more.
I realized  I spend a lot of energy telling Emma Kate "no" when she asks me to stop and play with her, read her a book, fix her a snack, go outside, or any thing else she dreams up.  Then we have a battle for thirty minutes on why I am just soooooo busy and she needs to find something else to do.  Instead of all that negative energy, we could have spent that thirty minutes doing some thing fun, sufficing her and feeding my soul.  I realize that too soon will come a time when she no longer wants me to do "arcs and cwafts" or read her "just one more book. no two. no free, cause I am free (three)....no just four, four books."
Then I will look back and see that the laundry could have waited, or the dishes could have stayed in the sink a little longer.
So, we have been doing an activity every day when I get home from work.  We have colored and made necklaces.  We have made cards and baked cookies.  Monday, when she asked if she could put glue on her hands, my knee-jerk reaction was "Ew, gross, no! That is going to be a mess to clean up."  But then I thought, "Why not?? Of course you can put glue on your hands! In fact, I will too!!!! And then we will peel it off together and laugh and have fun!"   So, just the other day, we covered our hands with glue and waited for them to dry.  Then we peeled it off and giggled so much it hurt.  A good hurt.
Now, when I am cooking dinner and she asks if I can play dolls with her, I don't say no. Instead, I say, come up here and help me stir. Then we make a big deal about how she "made" dinner.

These are simple things that I always intended to do with my child, but somehow life got in the way.  I am so glad my heart finally jumped ahead of my head and figured it all out.

(Picture on the top is this year's Easter egg hunt, picture on the bottom is last year's.....**sigh**)

Every night at dinner (I do insist that we eat at the dinner table as much as possible), after we say our blessing, we all ask eachother what our favorite moment, saddest moment and funniest moment of the day is.  She usually says the same stuff, but just the other night I asked her, "Ok, Emma Kate, what was your favorite moment today?"  And she thought very hard with that little crinkle between her eyes.  I fully expected her to say "When I went to school or when I went to the basketball game."  Instead, she looked right up and said, "Right now,"  and then Mike and I both said, "That is mine, too."
We are still crazy busy and barely hanging on most days, but at least we have slowed down enough to just enjoy "Right now."