June 13, 2017

Dear Baby,

This morning for breakfast you requested some of your favourites including blueberries and a bagel with cream cheese. I sat and watched you first lick the cream cheese off the bagel, then eat the blueberries and then fake eat the bagel itself and I thought to myself how little people are the perfect models of how we should be living our lives.

You see, you don’t save the best for last. You jump in and enjoy the best thing first. You take delight, you are not reserved and cautious you just see what you want and you have it. Adults somehow at some point get this all messed up. We begin to save, to reserve, to take caution and to hold tight. We become afraid to really enjoy things and we overanalyse. You don’t do any of that. There is no thought about what sequence to eat the food, how many calories are in the food or if there will be more food. You eat to eat and eat to enjoy and it’s fucking amazing to watch.

When we walk around, as we often do in these sunny afternoons, you stop for everything. A cute dog, flowers or even just a cool rock you see on the ground. I often find myself urging you along so that we can get to the park to play and then catch myself because what are you doing if not enjoying your time? So I need to rush you to play?

You are literally stopping to smell the roses – a function we strive for in busy adulthood. You are always stopping to enjoy the environment around you. The environment that I often just take for granted. The sight of a bus or a plane or the sounds of a birds in the trees. You notice everything. To hell with all these methods of mindfulness and relaxation – take a walk with a toddler and see the world through their eyes and tell me you are not a better and more calm person for it.

And then on these walks you will often sing. For no reason. Out loud. Just because. Baby, if you are not encompassing all of what all those cheesy magnets say you should be doing, I don’t even know. Sing like no one is listening etc.

You are a constant reminder to do those things. Dance like no one is watching blah blah blah. I spend money on books and time on researching all the ways that I could be more meditative, mindful and happy and there you are enjoying your life, pausing to look at anything you like and singing your little heart out for no reason at all.

We should all live more like our kids and stop reserving, rushing and hiding. Let’s all enjoy what we have and want, taste the best food first, wear that item of clothing we have been saving, stop to admire beauty and enjoy nature, pause, not rush from place to place, put down our phones and fucking chill, and belt out a tune for no reason at all.

I think there’s a reason you are so happy and the above is a big part of it.

I hope you keep this mentality forever.

xo

Mom