I'm okay with the simple things.

I don't really ever have the kind of day that I used to have before Mike & I decided to have a baby. Even when Baby Boy was growing in the womb, things hadn't changed yet. We were trying to fit so many things in - & we really did! - & I felt like I was always running around. I was so busy the week before Q was born that I'm positive that it threw me into labor 10 days early. But I was happy! Busy! Really fulfilled. It was lovely. These days, there is far less running around the city, & adventures take place on a much smaller scale. We're ordering in far more than we're going out. We see friends less often, & during earlier hours of the day. The scope of the things that I photograph & write about has moved from New York City to mostly just our little apartment & the happenings within it. My to do list is has become shorter, & quite a bit more simple. I can partly blame winter (it's long + hard this year), but it's mostly - & obviously - baby. You know, the adjustment of it all. Still. Life has slowed down dramatically for us these past five months. I say that not to complain, but to accurately document the simplicity of our days. Because they are quiet mostly, &really quite simple. But still, there's an element of complexity that is always lingering in the back of my mind. 

The complex being that I have the responsibility of teaching this sweet little boy. Everything. 

No big deal, right?

I was thinking about this concept the other week as I was reading to Quinn. We were working our way through Green Eggs & Ham for the first time, & when I say working through it, I mean that we skipped from I do not like green eggs & ham to I do! I like them, Sam-I-am! in about 90 seconds (do you realize that book is like 50-something pages long?!). I've loved collecting books for Q, including the really sweet gifts from friends. I love his little library. I love that when Quinn sits on my lap & I read to him, he wants to play with the pages of the books & stares intently at the pictures. These books help us to teach Q about all sorts of things, ranging from the eating habits of a man named Sam to sushi to New York City to birds & their homes. I love the sweet messages in children's books. I love the bright colors & the simple graphics. But. I realized the other day that I was kind of missing something, & it bothered me that I didn't have a single book about faith. Plenty of books about being nice, & sharing, & how different animals love their mamas. But how do you start teaching a little child about God? That he loves us? That we have a purpose? Obviously parents have their role + responsibility to teach their children, & our daily actions speak louder than any book can. And, I'm clearly not going to start off by making Quinn memorize the 10 Commandments. Still, I wanted fair representation on his bookshelf of those things that I really value, because motherhood has this way of magnifying things, & those things that I've grown up believing have even more fully solidified into knowing. I desperately want my son to know them, too. So. We've added a few books to his collection. Books that talk about how Jesus is his friend, & how Heavenly Father gave us the sun (thank you!) & the birds & the trees. Simple. Sweet. He doesn't know the words that I'm reading to him, but someday he will, & in the meantime, the simplistic reminders of truth make me feel good as I read them, because they apply to me too, & I need those same lessons every day. 

And, I also really love that one of his new books allows me to get through the entire Old & New Testaments in approximately 20 pages. Like Luke 15, summed up in one paragraph - He had 100 sheep. Then one went missing, & he had only 99. He searched for the one until he found it. He brought it safely home. Then he was happy again. 

Anyway. The simple things. This is what we do every day. Sometimes it will be learning the basics about why we're on this earth in the first place & why it all matters. Other times, we'll work on the muscle development that will eventually turn into crawling, & then walking, & then running. 

We didn't do a lot today, really. We said goodbye to Mike (but not before he snapped a few photos), spent some time on our tummies, went for a quick walk around the block to run an errand, sang some songs, read a few books, & played with Q's animal friends that dangle down from his play mat. 

And, we practiced standing. It was a good day.