learning from children….
i remember sitting in the hospital bed while i was inpatient for 8 weeks and thinking about how i didn't ever want simms to feel left out when the twins came. theres something about the first child that made you a mother. simms was not easy to have and came after several miscarriages. the thought of him having his feelings hurt by me was too much to handle. i'm sure plenty of other moms feel this way when a second baby (or in my case, babieS) is on the way. hell! he still sleeps in our bed (and no i'm not sorry about it… i love and cherish it!)
so while inpatient, one of the shows i watched regularly was "quints by surprise." if you haven't seen it, its a show about a couple that had a little girl and tried for one more baby and got FIVE!!! the one big thing i took away from watching that show was that they often took time alone with the oldest daughter (eliot) and i wanted to make sure i did the same with simms. so when we needed to buy a triple stroller, i decided to keep the single stroller we had because i planned on using it for times when it was a "simms day." life with twins is crazy. its very scheduled, very busy, and very demanding of my time. it has (sadly) forced simms to grow up faster than i ever thought. but on top of that, the twins get ALL the attention out in public. he's not dumb, he's knows it and will act out for attention too….usually negative attention. but i have really made a point to try and do things with ONLY simms. i think its super important and he deserves it. he's an ANGEL when we are one on one.
so this past friday, i had to shoot the sunsphere for a friend of mine. its a knoxville icon and simms LOVES it. he thinks its called "knoxville" regardless of what i tell him. so i asked if he wanted to go to work with me to take pictures of "knoxville." when he saw who was babysitting, he actually wanted to stay with her (haha!), but i made him come with me anyway…tears and all. he ended up loving it and having a blast and as usual, i ended up walking away and learning from him. children have so much to teach us, if we just take the time to listen.
" i tell you the truth, unless you change and become like the children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." matthew 18:3
TRUST. he trusted where i was taking him, even though the thought of staying with one of his favorite babysitters looked more appealing.
FREEDOM TO LIVE IN THE MOMENT. he wasn't worried what vance and ellis were doing or where cal was or what we were having for dinner. he enjoyed just being with me.
OBEDIENCE. after the sunsphere, we swung by the park for a little while. i told him we only had time for 3 slides and then we had to head back. he did exactly that. i know this won't always be the case, but for now i treasure his obedience.
i'm so far from perfect over here that its laughable. but i pray that i can learn more of these traits from my kids everyday.
xoxo- hannah
