Today, sandwiched in between therapies, preschool pick-up, and a few conference calls was a small pocket of time. A time that could have been used to tackle the mountains (yes, mountains) of laundry sitting on my bedroom floor or the extremely neglected toilets and floors, but instead I grabbed an adorable two-braided girl by the hand and we skipped outside.

No phone, no nagging minutes, no plan. Just me and my middle enjoying some rare time alone in what ended up being the most gorgeous day we’ve had this year.

She rode her bike. I took pictures. We had a picnic with veggie straws and giggles, and we played baseball until Brooklyn woke up and joined the party.

The sun was bright enough for sunglasses, and fur-trimmed coats were shed and replaced with polka dot and plaid hoodies.

We had stroller races until Emma got off the bus — the only indication that our time was almost up. Therapy #2 at 4:15.

As Emma headed down the driveway and handed me her coat, she pulled out a bottle of pink Hello Kitty nail polish from her sweater pocket — the nail polish she asked me (about 103 times) to “pleeeeeease put on” this morning.  But between outfit wars, half-made lunches, and eggs on the stove, there was no time for nail polish.

“Why did you bring that to school with you?” I asked her.

“Because I wanted to,” she said with a huge grin on her face. “I carried it with me all day.”

With that, she put it back in her pocket and suggested we play hide and seek until Miss Julie arrived. I smiled, soaking up her wisdom, and agreed to be the seeker.

~Linking up to Just Write