Observations on Little Ones

My sister’s kids came down from Vermont to stay with us for a few days. They’re nine and six, just as mine were only a few short years ago.  Yet somehow, as I’ve aged and adapted along with mine, I’ve forgotten all the sweet, little things about little ones.

Like how no matter how late they go to bed, they still wake so early (6am) and how those little bellies are so super hungry after a full night of sleep.

I’d forgotten how a few picture books, read in a fun, animated voice, can be the highlight of a day.

Or how there is no need for probing questions to get them talking.  That they talk freely, an unfiltered stream of all that they observe and see.

How if asked to do something, they actually do it. Right then and there.  What a concept.

How they smile for photos and come running when I find a cool bug or tadpole or inchworm.

How they actually put on sunscreen and how covering their little backs takes just a bit of lotion and a few swift swipes across those bony angel wings.

How an afternoon bowl of ice cream with raspberries is a special treat and how a soda with caffeine isn’t even a consideration.

I’d also forgotten how they can’t reach glasses or bowls in the cupboard and how pouring their own lemonade usually means more on the floor than in the glass, and how they’re constantly watching and imitating the bigger ones; longing for their own bigger somedays.

But most of all, what I’d forgotten, is that for now, how they have no where else to be, but right by my side.

What about you? Are you still in the midst of raising little ones or have your littles grown big?