life is just beautiful sometimes!

Lovie and I were watching some Nick Jr. on Monday after we'd been home for a bit. A video/song/non-commercial (after all, they're "like Preschool on TV" with "no commercials") came on by the Fresh Beat Band. It's a song that Nick Jr. has been ramming down our throats now for a couple months. A song that even Lovie has grown tired of. But still, every once in a while, we goof off to the song and such was the case on Monday.

It has been WEEKS since I'd last really played with my Lovie- and it was killing me to be so inactive with her. And while I was (and still am) so incredibly tired, I was fever-free so... I got up and started to sing and dance in a very exaggerated way.

Lovie was sitting in her little chair, holding her Baby. She looked up at me dancing and singing and smiled oh so big. She stood up, put her Baby on the table, and said, "All done."

For a moment I thought she was telling me to be all done with the dancing- something that is so unlike Lovie as she adores singing and dancing. Then she came and tried jumping on me with laughter erupting from the curls atop her head.

I scooped her up and we twirled and danced and she let out a "Weeeee!" as her head fell back and her hands gripped tightly onto my shirt.

"Cuz here we go!!" I shout-sung out as the song came to an end.

Lovie's legs were wrapped so tightly around my midsection and her face was that of absolute pure joy and happiness.

Yesterday after school and work, we stopped off at the park. It was stunning out- sunny and a bit cool (especially in the shade when the wind blew). After I got her out of her carseat and onto the sidewalk, she grabbed my hand and we walked into the park. When she saw the slide, she let go of my hand and ran to the stairs, climbed one, peeked over at me, shouted "I see you!" with the biggest smile on her face, finished climbing the stairs, sat at the top of th slide and said "Weeee!" as she slid down.

Pure joy and happiness beamed from her.

She ran to one of her favorite playground pieces

this video is a couple months old

and played there for a bit as I stood off by the slides, smiling. I could sincerely watch her play and discover and learn all day long.

When she was done with that, she came running over to me with a big smile on her face. I thought she was going to grab a hold of my hand and direct me toward the swings (where a 6 month old was swinging), but instead she just leaped onto my legs and latched on to give me a hug. Just because.

"Oh honey," I said, rubbing her curls. "Are you having fun?!"

"Yeah!" she said and went back to climbing onto the stairs for the slide.

Later, after we had been home and eaten dinner and taken a bath, we were getting ready for bed and watching Blue Clues. Lovie had her sippy of milk in one arm, her Grandmabear in the other and she sat with me on the couch for the entire episode.

Absolute heaven on earth... my life with her.

I do my best most days not to take any of this for granted. These aren't necessarily abnormal moments in our lives, but they really are so incredibly wonderful to me (and I think to her, too), that I really do try not taking any of it for granted. I'm SO blessed to be this girl's Mama. So blessed. And I'm also incredibly... incredibly... grateful to have this time, this experience, this life.