Play Time With My Baby

This evening, in the 30 minutes after eating dinner and before I went for a walk, I sat down to play with my baby.

And as I made her bunny hop-hop-hippety-hop over to her and kiss her...  As I made her dolly play peek-a-boo from behind the bunny...  As I heard her giggle and squeal in delight over such simple actions on my part...  Well, I just knew that was my grateful for today.

And I also realized that I am taking these moments for granted.

How easy it is to get swept up in all the doing. 

The laundry must get washed and folded...

The dusting must get done...

The dishes must get washed...

The dinner made...

The exercising (miraculously) accomplished.

I want the quilts to get progressed...

The cross-stitch ornaments to get finished...

Don Quixote to find its way back onto my bookshelf (or maybe into a donation pile!?!) and finally off of my to-read list...

The cookbook to be completed...

And play-time starts to fall by the wayside. 

Because it's always an option, right?  It'll be there tomorrow, won't it?

But there will be a tomorrow when it won't be, of that I am sure. 

And so today, as I listened to my sweet girl laugh...  As I watched her clap while I rolled the "rain-stick" ball her way (and watched her bat it -- not necessarily back towards me ;))...  As I observed her find -- and eat cheerios that had been on the carpet since lunchtime in between playing with Mommy...  I realized what a joy it is to play with my little angel.  What a privilege it is to be one of her favorite playmates.  Today, those moments of playing were the second best of my whole day (second only to the sleeping snuggles right before I put her down for the night...  Because I think those will always be my most treasured moments, for as long as she'll allow me to have them).

And even if I'm staying up late to finish the dishes or fold the laundry or sew that row of the quilt...  I know I chose the better part.  Because my sweet baby is more important than any of those things.  And I hope I can always remember that.

What are you grateful for today?