Today was a good day. And yesterday was a great day. Both packed full of simple pleasures, mini-milestones, and lots of smiles.
Little M’s adventures with her new bike have made me smile most. Yesterday she got the whole cycling thing. We got her a bike a month or two ago after much deliberating about the whole balance bike vs sparkly bike with stabilisers thing. I know in theory kids learn faster by starting of on balance bikes but Little M was so insistent on a ‘proper’ bike and our flat so lacking in storage that we went for the not-very-sparkly-lightweight-one-with-stabilisers compromise that should last her a while. For a few reasons we hadn’t really got going with the bike much, I was starting to wonder if we'd made the wrong call. We made cautious practice trips last week with little M concentrating very hard on pedaling and steering, and me hovering very close by to head off any rogue maneuvers.
Then yesterday something changed as she was pedaling along on our way to the mini-plot. She was singing a song, no longer having to think carefully about pushing each pedal down and nimbly steering her way past the lumps and bumps on the path in the park. Suddenly I had to jog to keep up and neither of us could keep a smile off our faces! Fellow cyclists rang their bells at her and she smiled back - she was one of them now! We had a proper day out and about, post office, shop, mini-plot, and playground with little M cycling all the way. Very exciting! A cycling nursery run is definitely not far off.
We also shared a first - eating home grown carrots fresh from the ground (well, after we gave them a good wash at the stand-pipe). Little M led the way...after she'd finished off the tiny strawberry harvest. I can't believe I've never done this before! Little L, back to form after a horrible bug, wanted to join in, of course, but her teeth weren't really up to it yet. I know people talk about how childrens' attitudes to food are changed by getting involved in food growing but I've often though that, once they've tasted marshmallows, kids will love getting messy but don't necessarilly get particularly excited by eating the veg. Little M loves sweets. And yet she declared the carrots were her favourite thing that day, pipping the strawberries and the rare sweets she'd persuaded me to include in our picnic to the post! I may have to rethink my skepticism about the benefits of growing our own!
We had another lovely day today, trying out a new art class with friends where little M wrote 'mum' for the first time - she made a set of luggage tags for our upcoming holidays. She also made a very sensible guess at how to spell her sister's name for her tag. She didn't use all the right letters, but it was phonetically correct - a very proud moment. Both girls played nicely with other children at a friend's house. And I got to have a nice chat and a cuppa (not to mention a lovely impromptu lunch). Simple pleasures.
I suspect there are one million and one tasks I was supposed to be doing along-side the art classes, carrot eating and cycle rides. Little L had been ill, I'd been away with work and then off work looking after her. Probably a good thing I'd accidentally left my mobile at home!
It's good to go with flow sometimes, to slow down and stop worrying about the things you forgot to do and appreciate life's simple pleasures. I might have been incapable of even writing my "to do list" over the last few days, let alone doing it (falling asleep while trying to read bedtime stories probably tells you enough), but the things we've done should definitely have been on the list. And probably all the better for the lack of the rest of the "to do list"!