When I went to get Hailey out of bed yesterday morning, Kaitlyn ran over to Hailey with her usual squeal of excitement and I gave her a big morning hug. As I helped her out bed I asked if she had any dreams. Suddenly her face fell as she told me she did.
“I had a dream that I was ice skating and you and daddy and baby Kaitlyn were there. Then you left me and I was all alone.”
Heart. Broken.
I immediately smothered her in another hug, told her I would never, ever, ever leave her and carried her downstairs for breakfast.
At that moment I decided to abort the plan of working out and just spend the morning with my girls.
I took them to Whole Foods where Hailey was pumped about the wagon of fruit but hesitant about the idea of story time that the store was putting on. After a little coloring and a book reading by Sarah, I’ll give you one guess how she was won over…
Yes, that’s a cupcake at 10:00 am. I think Hailey found her new best friend.
From there we took off to Target, making sure we spent a solid 20 minutes just wandering and playing in the toy aisle. It wasn’t anything super special, but we were all together and having a fun time.
Well, except for my trying to navigate the double carts through the kids’ clothes aisles. There is nothing enjoyable about that.
From there, we rushed home to put Kaitlyn down for nap, then I made Hailey and myself matching lunches and we sat down together to chat.
About dinosaurs.
I love how Hailey will randomly say things like let’s talk about dinosaurs. We talked about how big some of them were. I tried to explain the word extinct and why, yes, I was certain that the zoo didn’t have dinosaurs.
A silly conversation but it made me smile because these are the little moments I sometimes forget to be grateful for.
I know being at home isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but for me, it’s what I’ve always dreamed of doing. Still, I sometimes get so bogged down by the to do list that I forget how much I love these moments and I forget to live in them. I get sidetracked by the must-dos and forget about the get-tos. But then sometimes I look at Hailey and feel like, true to cliche, that I blinked one day while I was holding her as a baby and suddenly here she is, a funny, vivacious, walking, talking little person.
Before you think the rest of my day was spent in a fairytale land of happiness too, let me tell you that Koda went crazy barking at the washing machine, which woke Kaitlyn up early from nap, leaving her quite cranky. Due to this, Hailey missed her quiet time (I can’t call it nap time anymore with a straight face) and it led to a long afternoon to fill.
At Hailey’s swim lesson, I did my usual chasing around and corralling of Kaitlyn as I tried to stay in the one spot Hailey knew to look at and wave to between her turns swimming, because she always turns to make sure I’m watching. And you know after that dream she had that I couldn’t NOT be there when she turned to wave at me.
By the time we got home, we were all pretty worn out.
Physically I was ready to kick my feet up and call it a day, but somehow mentally, my perspective was right where it should be. As I watched Hailey clean up her toys before turning in a TV token and Kaitlyn follow her around like a lost little puppy, I said a quick thank you for the opportunity to be the one to keep up with their craziness. Because for all the whining, dirty diapers, crying, scraped knees, barking dogs, meltdowns and missed naps, I wouldn’t trade where I am for anything.
And after all, there is always wine for the long days.
I know, I’m a walking talking cliche.
The good news about missed naps is that the girls fell asleep quickly, leaving David and I to enjoy some downtime and dinner.
And charge our batteries for another full day of this crazy, wonderful life.
Is there anything in your life that you sometimes forget to be grateful for while being caught up in the business of the day to day?
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