There were actually a LOT of little moments this week when I was filled with appreciation for my little bundles. It was a special week. This mild winter helps a ton.The one moment I want to highlight though is my daughter getting to wear her recital dress for the first time.  Much to my dismay they have already passed their dresses out when the recital is not until May. Explaining to a 3 year old over and over on a daily basis that we are supposed to be keeping the dresses nice just feels futile. But so far she has managed to only wear it the one day she brought it home.  I was lucky enough to feel like a fly on the wall when I took this video: Pink dress 

I wasn't like this as a kid. I wasn't into dresses (although I could bore my parents for hours with my performances) I can't relate to this in anyway now other than seeing such miraculous joy in her it spills over into me. The "Toddler & Tiaras" type dress is hard to swallow but look how HAPPY SHE IS!  Love it!

Does anyone else have a moment joy moment from the week that you want to share? We would love to hear them!

Capturing Time

So I decided at around January 3rd to participate in the Photo A Day project. Granted that means I missed three days but I have been keeping up ever since. There are days that I almost forget and I take picture of something random, like my cat snuggled in my bed right before I get in. Other days I actually remember to pull out my camera at a moment that is telling of my day. Like today when I caught N's protest on the streets of Cambridge. He just sat down and wouldn't move. He wasn't screaming. It wasn't a full blown out tantrum. Just a protest that he didn't want to leave. So he went limp on the sidewalk and just sat there. And I let him. Sometimes it's easier. I let him sit there for a few minutes, pointing at trucks and "talking" to me. I took photos.

As much as a lot of these photos seem trivial on a daily basis (like the one I took of my blueberry muffin batter) I imagine when I look back at them at the end of the year I will enjoy them. They will give me a sense of where I was a year ago, or ten months ago, or 5 months ago. When you have young children those can be very different spaces of time. So in that same line of thinking I've decided to capture the joy of the year as well. Parenting is so much about just getting through. Getting through this stage, this event, this meal, this bedtime, this night..... But along the way there are those moments of sublime joy. And in the 99% of the day of "getting through" its hard to remember the 1%. It's probably why my favorite article ever about parenting (with the most telling title) is the NY Times "All Joy, No Fun". But the reality is that each week has a moment. Maybe more than one, maybe less, but I want to make Friday JOY DAY. Starting now, each I will write about one moment of pure parenting joy from the week. This leaves 48 more weeks for me to come up with something. Per usual, it's to help me keep things in perspective.

And to be clear, this week's moment of joy was NOT N's Occupy Porter Square stunt. Not even close.