How Buzz Lightyear Underwear in My Purse Made My Day- and Other Little Happy Things

I've always had a bit of a poetic fascination and delight in the little things in life. I always get excited about that first moment in fall when you can see your breath, and the first tulip blooms of the spring- things like that. After Brian and I got married I wrote a poem about how much I loved waking up and seeing our slippers next to each other. Seriously.

But having kids makes me even more that way because they get excited about the little things too. And our day-to-day life is filled with little things.

I've been trying to keep mental notes of which little things make me happy after an experience the other day; Cal had a little mini accident in the bathroom at a friend's house. It wasn't a change-everything-and-hop-in-the-bath accident, or even a change-everything-below-the-waist accident. No, it was only a need-to-slip-into-a-clean-pair-of-underwear-and-go-on-with-my-life accident. And I was actually excited, because I had been carrying around this annoying pair of Buzz Lightyear underwear in my purse for about four months. I was vindicated! I was a prepared! Yessss! It rarely seems like I'm a mom prepared, but it did that day.

Another thing that has made me happy the past few days is our new dining room table. It's amazing. And my Valentine's tulips on top make it even better. We sold our other table that had big chairs and was just a stationary, standard table and bought one from Ikea that folds up into a tiny shelf. We bought respectable folding chairs at Costco and with those changes, our dining room has become awesome. When we're done eating we can fold the table down, or at least fold it halfway down, and open up the whole room. When the table is open all the way we can easily fit six chairs around it, and probably eight if we squished. Before, fitting five or six around our old table (which was almost the exact same size) was nearly impossible. Also- there are drawers in the table. Yes. Drawers. Six drawers! Simply exhilarating. They now hold kids bowls and snack containers, bibs, placemats, a I think one drawer is still empty! Props to my awesome husband for the selling and the buying and the moving that made our dining room much more user-friendly.

Half table

half table, different angle

Full table

Folded table- open room!

Here are some other little things that have delighted me lately:

• Newly ripped holes down low in the fencing around the construction site by our house. The boys can look through at the workers and the work without me picking them up!  
• Three nights in a row of no wet beds! 
• Little kindnesses I've experienced from people after my last seizure
• When Clark said the other day, "I'm sure happy that this family is getting another baby." 
• The peapod outfit that my friend Aimee dropped off for Peapod (picture below)
• Being woken up every morning by two happy boys who want to snuggle
• Baseball spring training starting

The boys love little things too. Cal notices the smallest details, it's astonishing. He remembers what clothes people wore the last time we saw them and things like that. They both often comment on how beautiful the weather is, the sky is, the flowers are, and that makes me happy. One day Cal used up several crayons coloring a piece of poster board different shades of blue and declared it to be his Beautiful Blue Sky. He wanted to tape it on the ceiling. It's been taped to our ceiling (with beautiful blue painter's tape) for probably around three months.

So anyway, that dumb pair of Buzz Lightyear underwear in my purse not only made me feel like a prepared mom, it also gave me some other things to think about being thankful for. Which reminds me, I need to replace that pair of underwear in my purse...

Cal's beautiful blue sky

This peapod outfit, complete with knitted hat, was a gift for our little Peapod!