My Little Beanster

Being a first-time parent is a real learning experience.  Everyone who is a parent already know that!  Bean just turned 2 this week.  As I sit and watch him learn and grow and do, I am amazed at how his little brain works.  I have learned to pick my battles, too.  We create things and I let him help out to improve those little motor skills and decision making skills.  Then I turn around and what we created is torn apart, scattered all over the floor, in his mouth, or wherever he thinks to put something.  It doesn’t matter what it is, if it goes together it comes apart again. What goes up….you know the adage.  I’m so fascinated and I wonder if I was as creative as he was at that age.  I am curious as to whether everything made me alive with wonder and discovery.  I ponder on these things and I realize something:  when I slow down enough to take notice, I see the things he sees.  Everything becomes larger than life again, and I am compelled to wonder again at things that have long since ceased to amaze me.  In a world that has gone crazy and seemed to have lost its focus and its joy, I can be like a child again and take a new glimpse at the usual and make it extraordinary again.  Even when things end up in a million pieces, I can look at it and say, “it must not have been so important after all”.  And it usually wasn’t.  I love the joy of children, their excitement about the world around them and meeting new people, the endless curiosity, and their love and compassion.  They are truly God’s gift to the world.  Now, let me go pick up the latest shredded project…