We were sitting on the couch one afternoon, just Boston and myself. We began to talk. The conversation started with when she was in my belly. This is their favorite conversation these days, combined with their playing the “mommy and daddy.” But this simple talk about the day she was born somehow took a turn to death and afterlife and emotions and feelings, and I was suddenly aware my little girl was much more grown up than I had realized. And the thoughts in her head are profound.

She is a little sponge, silently soaking in all of life.

We had been doing so much since we arrived here in California. I had immediately signed them up for a million and one classes, and we have had more play dates to attend than hours in our day.

But as we sat on that couch together, I realized that in all the busy–even the good kind–we hadn’t really talked like this all that much lately. There just hadn’t been time.

I wanted to talk with her more. So much more. To listen to the words she has to say. To watch the way the wheels spin in her head, allowing her time to articulate the words, the thoughts. To simply be together, with nothing on the agenda but being.

I wanted to hear my little man more, who has such a hard time saying all his growing brain is thinking. But he tries. And he needs my patience to wait for his words.

I decided right then to slow down for a while. To give more time to just the three of us.

We are taking things relatively easy for now. We are going for toddler led walks where I am not constantly trying to get us to a destination. We have no destination to go but where their feet lead us. And we talk. They have the most beautiful voices in all the world. And their words are like honey to the soul.

“Mom, want to talk about it?” has become our family motto these days. And we do. We talk about everything under the sun, and even the sun itself sometimes.

It feels so good. To simply be with them in this way. To slow down the busy, and just be present.

Autumn will be here soon and with it comes preschool and gymnastics and soccer and art, and the busy will happen again. But for the next two months we are checking out. We are slowing way down. We are taking the time to simply be together, with no other agenda than the words in our head.

Because these days our short. But their impact eternal.

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