At some point during the weekend Dave and Little Bug head to the grocery store together, leaving me at home with Sweet Pea.

I love having this one-on-one time with just my Sweet Pea. I had twenty-six months of one-on-one time with Little Bug and I can remember still to this day taking Little Bug up to the park in late July of 2011 and thinking to myself that this was probably one of the last outings I would go on as a mother to just Little Bug.

Fortunately, I have never felt myself pulled in two directions with my girls. Sweet Pea just fit in our lives from day one – even though those first few weeks and months were very difficult.

But I have thought about the fact that I have never had even a year of “just Sweet Pea” and obviously I wouldn’t want to! But I do cherish my time with just Sweet Pea when Little Bug goes off on a date with her Daddy to the grocery store.

On Saturday Sweet Pea had found one of her baby food containers and played with it for the longest time. I am not used to this. Little Bug, at this age, never played with much of anything past five minutes or so! But Sweet Pea will find something – and it is usually not a “toy” – and she will play with it for so long!

She sat here in the hallway putting the plastic top on and off the container. She would get frustrated if it didn’t go on right away and I would tell her to keep trying. I was folding a load of laundry while we did this and she must have done this 50 times!

When she was successful getting the top on, she was SO proud of herself!!

We then played a game of peek a boo where she would run through the kitchen and through the living room and come back to me still sitting in the hallway! Notice the baby food container is still in her hand! And it is time to pack the 12 month onesies up. She is about to bust out of this one!

And then it was off to get an actual toy – the drum set, which is a favorite toy in this house!

One of the best parts of parenting is watching your child enjoying life and finding pleasure in simple things such as a baby food container and a drum set! Do you see the JOY on her face?! If we all carried around that kind of joy in our hearts, can you imagine what this world would be like?

Wasn’t long and we were back to playing with the baby food container! She LOVES to put tops on things and fit things together. In this picture I was asking her, “Are you ready to eat lunch?”. She was shaking her head “yes”!

There is just something rejuvenating and refreshing about spending time watching and interacting with a 17-month-old. I love to watch my children play and learn and discover the world.

- Elaine