Learning to Pay Attention

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The other day, I posted a picture on Instagram and explained that it made me really stop to think, ponder, and re-evaluate things.
I haven’t been doing much crafting lately, because I’ve been cleaning, organizing, and purging sections of our house. But I did take some time to photograph some of my décor. But no matter what I did, The Little Man was always trying to get in the shot.

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I spent about 10 minutes yelling at him, putting him on time out, and then the yelling began.

  • M: “Sit down”
  • TLM: “But…”
  • M: “I’m not going to tell you again”
  • TLM: “he he, I’m in it again”
  • M: “I’m warning you”

Yup, that’s about how it went.

Then I finally realized that he wasn’t trying to disobey, he wasn’t trying to get on my nerves; he just wanted attention. He wanted Mommy Time. His sister was down for a nap, and we hadn’t had time to spend one on one time together that day.
As soon as I stopped to think about it and realized that I needed to focus on him, both of our moods immediately changed. I came to the realization that I was focusing too much of all the other things in my day. The tasks on my to-do list, the projects I needed to get on the blog, making sure he was quiet so he didn’t wake his sister; all these were occupying my mind instead of the real reason behind his actions.

I stepped back and asked him what he wanted to do, just me and him. To my surprise and joy, he perked up and said “take funny pictures Mom”. So, we set up a tripod and took funny pictures!
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Seriously, looking at these pictures makes me so happy; teary eyed even. I am saddened that I almost missed out on an opportunity like this. That I was so busy worrying about the have to’s and need to’s that I could have missed such an awesome opportunity with my son. After taking the pictures we then sat on the couch, ate some smarties, and laughed and laughed and laughed at the pictures on the camera.
Now I can’t wait to print them out, hang them in a collage, and have them to look at years down the road as a reminder to live in the moment, live with my kids, and not worry about the “to’s”.

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Comments

  1. I love this! It made me tear up because sometimes it’s so hard to recognize those moments that our children really need our attention to feel loved! Those pictures are beautiful and priceless! Thanks for the fun post!

  2. What a great example you are! Way to stop and just enjoy the moment!

  3. Love it! Seriously, priceless photos. Thanks for sharing.

  4. So cute! I think we all have moments like this!

  5. What a sweet story! I love all of the silly pics…I am actually writing a post tomorrow about getting in pictures with your kids so YAY! I’ve got a little hashtag #capturethejoy when you do. Cute mantel, and thanks for the tips on that other thing;)

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