Take a moment to stop and smell the flowers

Today was a long day, time seemed to stand still at work. I was just counting down the hours, minutes to 4:30pm when we could go home. At 4:30 a co-worker brought Jack to me so we could go home but didn't bring him bag so we needed to head back to his room to get it. For most this would seem like a quick simple task, but with a one year old who wants to walk everywhere it could take forever.

It took me 5 minutes to get him out of my class and into the main hall where I signed us out. And then the door open to a classroom where he saw a good friend of mine and headed in there to check it out. After 15 mins of him playing with the big kids, I said come on Jack time to go bye bye. He followed me out and we headed down the hallway to his room, he stopped at every bulletin board, door way and person that we met along the way. I finally said come on baby mommy wants to go home. We got to his room forever later and then he began to pull the toys out as I packed his bag, which meant we now need to clean up. Ok, cleaned up toys....check. Bag packed...check. Baby in hand...check. Let's get the heck outta here!

Now a half hour later (we could have been home by now) we are out of the building. But wait, Jack loses his footing and falls into a sitting position where he was content to sit and enjoy the view. About to lose it (did I mention it was a long day?) I help him up and we head up the walk way to the car. He reaches for my hand which melts my heart every time and I see our shadow. My eyes tear up and I think remember this. Remember this moment, it doesn't get any better then this. This is what you have waited for. As we pass the playground (yet another distraction) he squats down by the flowers. I say Jack let's go home and get Daddy and Bailey. And then it get's better. He stands up and has a flower in his hand, he hands it to me and I literally melt to the ground. My baby has just picked me his first flower. Needless to say I put our bags down, knelt down next to him and hugged him so tight. I realized in that moment that I can't rush this. I need to enjoy every single moment before it is gone. So there we sat for God knows how long looking at the flowers, smelling the flowers, and just being in the moment with my baby.

Being a working mom is hard, exhausting. But it is moments like these that remind me what is important in life, what motherhood is all about. So when you are tired, over worked, and over whelmed take a minute to stop and smell the flowers