Don't Worry, Be Happy...

I have a handful of favorite mom memories, but this one...this one takes the cake.

I'm in the kitchen picking up tupperware because that's pretty much what I do now. Pick up tupperware and I hear two voices in the living room.

"Don't worry." -Kyle

"Be happy." -Jack

"Don't worry." -Kyle

"Be happy." -Jack

They go on like this for a while and I stand in the doorway hidden from sight smiling so big I think my face may fall off.

"Don't worry."

"Be happy."

"Don't worry."

"Be happy."

Here they are...father and son. Boy and man. Dad and baby. Here they are...the two people who hold my heart in their hands singing a song and laughing together.

Here he is...a father teaching his son an incredible life lesson.

Don't worry. Be happy.
Don't worry. Be happy.

Just a Bunch of Do-Gooders

On my constant quest to be better, I am surrounded by people doing more...by people being better. I come across it multiple times a day. So many of these people get little recognition for their accomplishments of just being a good person.

There's no real reward for that, but these people, these genuine do-gooders wouldn't accept an award. They would pay it forward.

Like James...our maintenance man who held the door every day with a smile and would knock down walls if he knew you needed him. He wouldn't let us throw a going away party because he didn't want the recognition. He quietly said goodbye as he entered retirement. James is a do-gooder...a genuine, make you smile from the inside kind of person. I miss him.

And my co-worker who helps at a center for disabled adults. She taught me not to see the disability, but to love the person inside. She didn't teach me this through words, she taught me through action. She's a do-gooder.

And my neighbor who is constantly pulling our recycle bin to the garage or quietly shoveling our front porch or running out to help me carry the groceries when he knows I have a toddler inside. He is a do-gooder.

We are surrounded by them...just a bunch of do-gooders who keep making the world better one small gesture at a time. Gosh, we're lucky to have them around.

New Year. Blessed Beginnings.

On the first of the New Year, you woke up two hours too early. I pulled you into my arms in our tiny little beach house and you slept on my chest tossing and turning and smiling every time you caught my eye.

You're getting pretty cuddly in your old age.

I didn't sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about how this was the most incredible way to begin the new year. I tried to slip a sweatshirt on you so we could sneak away for a walk on the beach.

It took some convincing as your toddler brain entered a very irritated state. The minute you set foot on the sand you took off running in a dead sprint with no real destination. I laughed and ran with you. We passed the early risers, the ones who are called to the ocean first thing in the morning. I felt connected to them.

I have always been drawn to the ocean.


You walk with true confidence. Your shoulders are back and your head is high and you aren't afraid of anything. It's something I deeply admire and am terrified of in the same sense. You laugh anytime you hear someone else laugh. It makes us laugh to hear you laugh when you hear someone else laughing.


You smile all the time. And I mean all the time. You have a tiny gap in your front teeth. I LOVE that tiny gap. I hope you never want to erase it.

You're sweet. You are SO SWEET. You love hugs and kisses and cuddles and you LOVE making people laugh.

You have a serious side. And by serious I mean brilliant of course. You catch on quickly. You catch on the first time. It's frightening and awesome and it keeps me in check. I know your tiny brain is taking it in every minute, every word, every action.

You LOVE your Dad.