THE TWOS

Oh, the joys of having two year olds…

The other morning, after a highly successful playdate with some friends of ours, I started packing up the boys’ belongings while they scampered through the grass. Somehow, in the two minutes that it took me to gather our things, the boys managed to find the only mud puddle within a block radius. Of course, they couldn’t just look at it… OH NO!... they had to fully enjoy the ooey-gooey mud. What I saw, as I raced to stop the inevitable, was two little tow-heads jumping and splashing in knee-deep mud. Had I not been their mother and entirely focused on how I was going to get my muddy little boys back into the car and the mud out of their nice, blue pants, I would have noticed how their enjoyment of that simple mud puddle was so very pure and sincere. In fact, in retrospect, I should have pulled out my camera and captured this terrible (and adorable…my little partners in crime) two-some moment. Instead, I lifted them out of the puddle, stripped them of their mud-soaked clothes and drove two diaper-clad boys home to be bathed. There may have also been a firm word or two about how we DO NOT jump in mud puddles.

After the boys were bathed, fed and down for their nap, I found myself scrubbing out their little pants and replaying the two of them giggling and splashing in the mud. It’s so hard, at times, to live in and fully appreciate the present moment for all its beauty and far-too easy to be so concerned with the work that may lie ahead. Ultimately, I supposed it’s important for these two little boys to learn that they really shouldn’t be jumping into every mud puddle they see… but I’ll keep smiling in secret as I replay their excitement and wonder at discovering the simple joy of a good splash in the mud.