Learning to Play . . . Again and Again

It's amazing how when you are growing up, there seems to be an ever-longer list of milestones to work towards and achieve.  As I get older, life has seemed instead to transform itself into cycles of activity and learning.  I find myself asking, "Haven't I learned this already?" or "When do I get to do something new?"

Here's a few things I find myself learning again . . .

1) Play.  Playing became something I did to relax and to soothe away the stresses of life.  Now, I am learning to play as a way of learning and opening my eyes to the way Blake sees the world.  Not just playing, but finding new ways to play every day to keep up with him.  Play is learning for him, and I've realized that somewhere as adults we lose a little bit of the desire to do new things just so we can learn.  Next goal: get out of my comfort zone and learn all those things I've wanted to do.

2) Simple pleasures.  When life is crazy busy, it's easy to need to be entertained by complex and dramatic things.  Now, time has slowed down (sometimes it seems too slow, but I'm getting better) and simple things become the big events.  Seeing Blake laugh at a pie tin that he bangs on can keep me entertained as long as it does him ;)

3) Patience.  This one seems to come up again and again . . . enough said!

So, here are some of the latest photos of life with the little guy!!