"I'm all grown up now, I'm three."

In the life of a mom there are just those moments when you know you are seeing something special in your child. It is like all the world is standing still for that very moment you are in. I had one of those moments with my oldest, Grace, tonight. It was bedtime, which like any average 3 year old, is not her favorite time of the day. Her daddy had read her some books and then began telling her it was time for bed and she needed to give Mommy hugs and kisses. And again, like any average 3 year old, we heard the broken record of whining, "But, I'm not tired." *yawn* "I don't want to go to bed." *yawn* "I don't like going to bed." I saw this as a perfect moment to bust out my motherly teaching skills and put them to good use. 

I sat her down in front of me on the floor and proceeded to tell her about how we all have to do things that we don't like to do. I used my not liking to do laundry as an example. Saying that if I decided not to do laundry because I didn't like it then she wouldn't have any clean clothes to wear! She asked what daddy didn't like to do. He told her how there were days when he would rather stay home with us then go to work. But, if he didn't go to work then we wouldn't have food to eat or a place to live. With which she asked, "Where would we live?" I took this as the que that the point had either already gotten across and she had totally forgotten it or the point, much more likely, had never gotten across. She then kissed and hugged daddy goodnight and slipped her hand into mine as I led her to bed.

I tucked her into bed with her favorite pink and green blankie and proceeded with the nightly routine of me rubbing her arm while singing, "Jesus Loves Me". I started singing when I heard her sigh and rub her hand across her fluffy bed and say, "I have a nice bed, huh, Mommy?" I smiled and said, "Yes you do. God is so good to us, isn't he?" In a way that only Grace can, she turned her eyes to one side and said, "Yes, he is and I'm all grown up now. I'm three." In that moment my whole world stopped. The world of countless moments of her whining at me about all the earth shattering crisis that happened in her day. All the time I had to send her to time out, JUST TODAY. All the hours on my knees praying that God would grant me MORE patience as I wasn't sure what to do with this kid. It all slipped away to a hidden or forgotten place in my heart. Because in that moment I remembered why I had become a mother. Why I wanted her. It wasn't for all the stuff that makes me want to turn over at 5:30a.m. instead of facing my day. It was for moments like these when I know that she is growing up and there is nothing I can do to stop it. Right now her dreams are big and real and true. She has no limitations. Her fairy tales haven't been tainted by the countless heartbreaks that life will throw at her. In her very small world she is the true princess of her castle and daddy is her knight in shining armor. Mommy can do anything to fix the hurt and make all the boo-boo's better. Her little sister is, well, her vote is still out on that one. If I could stop her from growing up, I probably wouldn't. But, I might like to slow it down just a little. I get so consumed with the ins and outs of my day of just trying to get her to the age of 4, that I forget about the little spirit that lives inside her. I know that she will grow up and I wonder what she will become. Whatever it is, I know it will be something beautiful.