One of my favorite things about being the parent of a 2-year-old is being able to witness my daughter paying attention to the smallest details and expressing joy about them. It’s contagious. If you had asked me a few years ago what I was thankful for, my list would have probably taken a long time to compile, and it would have been short. Not because I only had few things to be grateful for, but because I had started to think that the answer to this question had to be, somehow, grand. I had forgotten that the seemingly small things can be magnificent, too. This season, looking through my daughter’s eyes, I’ve relearned what to be thankful for:
- waffles for breakfast
- that one avocado seed that sprouted
- the sight and sound of every fire truck
- garbage truck days
- figuring out a good hiding place in hide-and-seek
- having a favorite book
- walking on crunching leaves
- drawing monsters
- petting sheep
- setting up the bird feeder
- memorizing the words of songs
- learning to pedal a bicycle
- learning when to say sorry
- finding the moon in the sky.
This article was originally published in Seven Days’ monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT.
This article appears in Kids VT, November 2019.
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