Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Guess How Much I Love You?

Aubrey is so precious. We definitely have our moments of frustration and defiance, and she's really been in a whiny stage lately. But through it all, I just love my little girl so much. She melts my heart and I enjoy her and our conversations immensely. She loves to tell David and me how much she loves us like the little bunny in Guess How Much I Love You. We have these conversations quite often. She always says, "Guess how much I love you?" And we say, "How much?" And she replies, "As high as the ceiling above the stairs."

She is referring to our two story entryway, and it's the tallest ceiling in our house. To her, this is a lot of love. It's the biggest, tallest thing in her little world, and I absolutely adore hearing her say that she loves us that much. She doesn't understand that the ceiling above the stairs doesn't even come close to describing how much I love her. But she will understand one day.

She asked me to lay with her tonight as she was trying to go to sleep. She told me that she missed me while Daddy was driving my car home from church and I was driving his car (even though she requested that arrangement so that she could spend time with David). She said she also missed me while she was napping and when she was in the nursery at church. She said those were all the times we weren't together today. It made me so happy that we get to spend our days together. These years with my children at home all the time is precious, and I know I'll never regret keeping them at home with me full time time for a second in the future. We have had a few hard days recently with Jude throwing food and temper tantrums and Aubrey whining. But I just felt like I was able to put it in perspective tonight. Even if I'm never able to leave my house again when I have three kids and I go absolutely stir crazy, these days are precious gifts. It made me more determined to spend less time on the computer or sitting in front of the TV when my children are awake. I want to be fully present with them. I want to cherish every second of their childhood. I want to be the kind of mother that doesn't have regrets when my children are grown and gone from home.

I know I will fail at this and there will be regrets because I'm human and I'm sinful. But by God's grace, I will strive to be the kind of mother who is present and involved in the little moments of every day. The fun days and the monotonous ones. Afterall, I love my children as high as the ceiling above the stairs. And SO MUCH more.

2 comments:

Nathalie said...

So sweet! I feel the same way :).

Courtney said...

Beautiful post. You're right, we will never regret spending extra time with those we love.