Just a Smile

I have a hard time making positive out of anything in my life. That is something that I am always working on doing better, but when you have a child it is so hard to make negative out of anything they do. Mason is 4! He is at that ever changing age. He likes to make you laugh (which gets him in trouble at school). He loves to say I love you to me and his daddy. He is full of hugs and full of kisses. His smile makes you melt. He knows when I don't feel well and he is usually concerned about it.

We decided after many discussions to purchase a swing set for the backyard. Yes there may be a method to our madness, but we knew Mason would love it. Good friends came over last night and helped set it up. Mason could hardly contain himself when he saw it actually becoming more than just metal poles in plastic wrapping. I sat on the patio listening to my friend talk to me and I literally zoned out as I watched Mason sit on the swing for the first time and just kick his legs.. The smile on his face was almost magical. There are no words to describe how I felt watching him at that very moment. Then having to pull him away from it to put him to bed was just evil!

I got out of bed this morning and went to wake him up and he was not in his room. My mother's instinct told me exactly where he was though. I figured, my little rug rat would already be outside sitting on a swing, but he knows not to go out without permission (or at least this time he did). I walked out into the kitchen, peaked around the corner, and there he was sitting on a chair leaning on the window sill just looking at his brand new swing set. I watched him quietly, he didn't say a word he was just gazing. At that moment, the happiness on his face meant the world to me. Nothing else mattered to me at all right then.

This makes me remember as one very specific moment in my childhood life. It was Easter Sunday and we had just gotten up and opened our Easter baskets. Dad told me to take out the trash and I really didn't want to. I mumbled under my breath how mad I was out into the garage, when the garage door opened and there sat a bright red shiny new go-kart! I remember my excitement and I was 11 years old maybe. That very excitement plus, is what I see in Mason's eyes when he looks at his swing set.

I think finally, just shy of my 30th birthday, I am realizing that all the stress of being a parent pays off in just one little smile, or kiss, or hug. It makes me realize that yes, I am his mommy and one day, he will stop calling me mommy and leave me, but for now his daddy and I are the center of his little world! Doesn't get any better than that! Does it?

Peace N Love