Thanks Be to the Moment

I've been thinking a lot lately about what life was like before I had kids.

I'm having a lot of trouble.

Did it exist? Was I really like these 20-somethings I see frittering away their time at Starbucks, and the bookstore, and on their iPhones, on blogs? (I realize I sound like I'm 100.) I'm sure I did my fair share of frittering. I was probably a master fritterer. If they offered a Master's course in How to Effectively Fritter, I'd have been the TA.

I'd fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way. (Roger Waters, Pink Floyd.)

I think I thought more about what kind of shoes to wear with my new jeans than I did about whether I could stomach a minivan purchase. Or whether I'd actually wear the black leather pants from Banana Republic. I'm pretty sure I never got the "Dora the Explorer" map song stuck in my head. Or ground-up Kix on my car seat. Or distraught that a minivan purchase would be determined inevitable, once we checked the "more than one child" box.

I definitely didn't jump when I heard my infant on the baby monitor. (Just did.)

But I have two unbelievably beautiful sons. I have a husband so amazing that poetry and all the words in Webster's dictionary wouldn't explain it. And sometimes, with amazing gifts as these, it's easy to get caught in the day-to-day.

So, recently my husband and I have been doing something fun to remind each other of this fact.. to bring us back to this critical recognition.

Last night at dinner, our 3-month old baby was sitting on his lap, watching my husband's plate and moving fork with acute concentration. Our toddler, when he determined (himself) to be done with requisite "eating", got down and started playing on the floor.

My husband, with a wink, said to me, "do you remember when baby A would sit attentively on my lap, just being adorable, and our Toddler would entertain himself while we quietly finished dinner?"

Immediately I relished the moment. We both did. It was [relatively] quiet. Calm. Peaceful. Joyful. We seized upon this and each, in our own way, thanked our lucky stars.