Four Little Words

There are certain things we wait for our kids to do. Things we teach and sometimes dwell on. These things include saying "Mama" or "Dada", crawling, walking, and so forth. I recall Landon coming home every night from work when Parker was a newborn. He'd hold him and say "Dada" over and over again. He'd move Parker's mouth with his thumb while he was saying "Dada". It was cute at first, but promptly got annoying. Months later, what was Parker's first word? Kitty, but Dada was the second.

I was the one who encouraged Parker to crawl and walk. I remember getting down on the floor and showing all my kids how to crawl. Owen had the army crawl down at four months and almost skipped the full crawl. He needed extra encouragement with walking. Zoe, well, we should have pushed her down. She hit all her milestones too early. Landon's grey hair will attest to this.

We encourage our kids, sometimes we push them and sometimes we are surprised by them. It was to my delight last week when Zoe came up to me and jumped on my back. This wasn't the surprise. The surprise was that she pulled my ear close and said, "I love you mommy!" There was no prompting other than our daily good morning and good night love. It was just there. It is a happy "first" that I hope to always remember.

It is so easy to loose the joy of being a parent and lately it's been a daily struggle. But, moments like this are rejuvenating-So thank you Zoe Kaye. I have a feeling you have wisdom underneath all that silliness.