Stop and Smell The Roses

Every afternoon the boys and I go for a walk.  Well, almost every afternoon - if it's not too hot.  They usually wake up around 4pm and after nursing Ryder, that doesn't leave much of an afternoon for play dates, trips to the park or other outings with dinner at 6pm.  So, walking around the block we do.

Kai has seriously taken to smelling the roses (and other flowers) on our route.  Every. Single. One. He. Can. Reach.  He will either smell them with his hands by his side, or he will first look at me for approval before gently cupping the flower with his hands and smelling it. 

He still has some difficulties grasping the idea that he cannot just step into the flower beds to smell the flowers, or that running onto people's properties isn't the appropriate thing to do.  The excitement he conveys once he spots yet another "fowah" [translation: flower] is just so adorable to watch.  I am lacking a better word for it at the moment. 

The little boy who - at home - is the wildest kid I have ever seen, who throws himself around, wrestles with both his dad and me at the same time, for whom play isn't fun if it doesn't fall in the category 'rough housing', holds the flowers with such care and a sense of delicacy, and takes his time smelling each and every single one of them.

These 'little' things remind me how awesome it is to be a mom to 2 boys.  They teach me to look at things from a child's point of view, and they allow me to rediscover the world around me.  Things that we take for granted and do not pay much attention to on an average day. 
Because, be honest - when was the last time you stopped in your path to take a moment and smell the roses?