Something different

I did something differently today.  Something I don’t get to do every day, and something I wish I could do every day.   The thing parents plan to do when they decide to be a stay at home parent.  It has been my experience that very few parents actually get to do these things.  I actually think that the parents who work outside the home actually get to do this more often.

Want to know what I did?  I enjoyed my daughter.  My daughter who is suddenly almost 4.5 years old!  I don’t know where the time has gone, but my calendar doesn’t lie…Squeaky turned 4 years and 4 months yesterday!

I didn’t clean up the kitchen, I didn’t vacuum or sweep, I didn’t even throw a load of laundry in the washer.  I gave her some breakfast, got ourselves dressed, gathered up some of her favorite things and went to the park.   We had a slight set back when my camera battery died after the very first picture I took…but we ran home, grabbed some lunch while the battery charged, and went back to the park.

I loved watching her play with her babies at the park.  She cares for them like they are real, and I love that part of her.   I loved being there with her, letting her lead the day.  After she was done playing with her babies she was ready for a park for just her, so we headed to the neighborhood playground.   While we were there I wasn’t on the phone, I wasn’t thinking about dinner, I was playing with her.  We raced down the slide, she helped me across the scary draw bridge, and I helped her do the monkey bars.

So many times during the day I look at her and see that she is content and just let her be.  I know, it is perfectly OK for her to have time to herself and entertain herself and by no means do I plan to take that part of her day away from her!  But it was nice to be her friend for the day, to be the one playing with her.  A lot of days it is her daddy that gets to come home and just play.  It just doesn’t seem fair that that is the way it works, so I took my own day to enjoy my daughter.  My own day to play with my friend who is growing up so quickly.

We got to enjoy everything from bubble gum to twirling in circles to a game of t-ball!

This was today…and you know tomorrow, the laundry will still be there and the vacuuming will still need to be done.  But tomorrow Squeaky will be 4 years 4 months and 2 days old, and I would have missed this.