"Little Things"

Over the past few weeks, Parker has done some things that have absolutely blown us away. Just yesterday while we were shopping with Grandma and Grandpa Brom, Parker was so giddy being held by Grandpa. In between giggles, he says '"Hi Greend-pa!" We all practically started jumping up and down and telling him how proud we were of him! Then he says "Hi Mama!" and I just about fell over. He had said "Hi Mama" only a couple of times but was never in context. It was always echolalia.  I started tearing up in Gymboree and just said "Yes Parker! Mama says 'Hi' back to you! Hi Parker!!!" The look on his face was priceless. He was so proud of himself. He knew that he had gotten across to us. I have always told him how if we cant find the right ways to talk to each other, our hearts talk to each other but yesterday when he said "Hi" to us...he was so elated. We all were. <3

Then the other day, he let Quinn touch him and tap on his back. He never lets Quinn get very close to him like that. He's pretty territorial with a few things with her too. If she stands at his train table, even if he's not playing with it, he shoves her off of it. Literally, grabs her hands very forcefully and shoves her backwards away from it. Well, Quinn being the doll that she is, she fusses but then goes right back to it. Needless to say, Parker doesn't understand why she does this. It's almost becomes a battle of stubborn-ness. But randomly the other day in the tubby, he let her come close to where she flapped her hands at his back and head butted him and he didn't automatically shove her back. Like I said, most times he's a little too forceful with her. We know that he can't tell her to back away because she's too close but at the same time, we want to teach him that it's ok for his sister to be close to him...but for whatever reason, that instance he was ok with her. Tim and I just praised him and kept telling him calmly that it's ok that she's close to him. We told him it's her way of telling him she loves him. He never took his eyes off of her and was slightly nervous but he dealt with it. It wasn't very long, but it was something we cherished.

With these little things, they have completely made Tim and I's day...week...month etc.  There's been stress around here lately but when little things like this happen, it makes us realize that nothing else really matters. What matters are our babes and what we can do to help them the most. We know that there always will be some sort of stress going on but to never get so wrapped up in anything to fail to notice these things. Some people don't see how your child saying 'hi' to you is a big deal. They say hi all the time. Or when their child comes over to play with their older sibling, they always are in some sort of physical contact with one another all the time...but here....it's a completely different story. It puts our life into perspective. It makes us realize even more how precious our lives are and how we cannot allow ourselves to get wrapped up in anything that could cloud these realizations. There's nothing that Tim and I could ever be faced with that would ever cloud or overshadow these "little things" because they are exactly the opposite. They are so huge and priceless to us. No job, no amount of sleepless nights, no huge amount of frustrations, etc could ever make us numb to these "little things." Ever.