She Looks Back.

The toddler years are so fast paced.  They grow fast.  They talk fast {sometimes not making any sense}.  They run.  They jump.  They tear the house apart.  So, it's easy to get wrapped up in all of that yourself.  You lose track of hours and sometimes even days, because you're caught in the whirlwind of their tiny, crazy, world.

Then there are those moments.

The moments that pull you back.  That make you look at the bigger picture.  The moments that make you realize how you are such a big part of this amazing thing.

I had one of those moments, the other day at the park.  It was a gorgeous day, one of those days that it should be illegal to be inside, so naturally we had to go swing on swings and slide down slides.  Gwen couldn't have been more excited.  It had been a while since we had been to our park, and the moment we pulled up the shouting and squealing began.

We hit the ground running, well she did at least, and left everything that would tie us down in the car.  {Except my camera, of course}  Crossing the street, I held her hand tight, but as soon as we stepped into the gigantic fenced in playground I let her free.  Free to run and explore as much as she wanted.  And oh boy, did she.

Amongst all the craziness and excitement, she did something so simple but something that made me feel so fulfilled in my role as a mother.

Running from one playground to another, there grew some distance between us, I could see her perfectly and she was in no danger, but it was a bigger distance than normal... and realizing this, she stopped and looked back.  At first, she didn't see me right away, but we quickly met eyes, and she smiled and said, "C'mon, momma."

That was it.

In that moment, I knew that I was her safety.  I knew that she knew that I was her safety.  That I should be with her.

And she did it more than once. {Ok, maybe the next two times, it was a test, to see if she would do it again, LOL, but she did.}

It's so hard to describe how something so little can have such a huge impact, but it did.  She looked back.  And it melted me... and may have just been the reason that I let her stay at the playground past her naptime.  :)

But, it's those moments that put into perspective, what we as parents are doing for our children, sometimes without even knowing it.  Even though, they may not always look back, they know that we are here for them, to support them and protect them.

And that, is a really great feeling.