Dinner was eaten around our table, all three of us there. We talked. We laughed. We ate yummy food.
During dinner I looked at Cooper, smiling while he talked. And it hit me. He knows much more about the way this world works than he did last year. But there is still so much that he's yet to learn. Here's an example. He knows pretty well how to get around town. He knows which way we need to turn at certain streets. (This is where small town life helps a bit I guess.) But while we're driving around town I hear him say "Mom, did you know my teacher doesn't live at the school?" And after I respond he says "Yeah! Because there's no bed at the school." So while he's gained knowledge in so many areas, he's still learning. He's still quite the sponge - soaking it all in.
Once dinner was cleaned up we still had about two hours before bed time. I started a pot of coffee and we gathered around the table again. This time for games. We played two new games from Christmas. Both of them fun. Both of them igniting laughter.
At some point along the way I realized that nights like this are perfect. Not because they are out of the norm and full of memorable moments. They are perfect for quite the opposite; they are perfect because they are completely normal. Tonight was just the day to day happenings of our family. Tonight was an example of the perfectly mundane routines that make up the heartbeat of our family.
The normalcy of our family is a normalcy of great love. There is freedom to be who we are. There is freedom to express ourselves. There is freedom to be completely silly. Freedom to be and do because no matter what, love is known here. And while Cooper is still in that soaking-things-in-stage, I looked around tonight, knowing that he's soaking it all up in an environment of love.
And that makes this mama's heart smile.
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| Tonight during the normalcy that is our laughter, I snapped this picture. Sometimes you need the picture to remember. |
