Today, I took my littles for a walk. The fresh air is soft and easy to breathe. Birds chirp loudly outside my window in the early mornings. The sun shines bright and lasts all day. We saw a robin! Spring is here!

We came upon a big puddle in the road. Just two days ago, my husband let her jump and play in it. I had just cleaned and dried her shoes that morning. As we inched closer to the puddle, I knew there was no way I could tell her to walk around it. Her two little feet eagerly jumped at the same pace smack into the puddle. The most beautiful giggles and dimples emerged. This is her childhood right here. These are moments she’ll remember, I thought. This moment I’ll remember.

I let her play and jump in the puddle for a while. Her shoes and pants were soaking wet. She had a blast.

That night, I looked online for rainboots. I paused and laughed at the memory of her today. I realized how short life is and how precious our time is with our little ones. They grow up so fast. Let them play outside. Let them explore the earth. Teach them right and wrong. Care about their feelings. Our children are all that we have to take into heaven with us.

Writing this brought me back to when I wrote an Easter poem about littles finding their Easter baskets on Easter morning. I’ll share that with you now.

Soft giggles fill the air

as footsteps light on the toes

spring up before Mom’s

morning Joe. Swiftly do they sprint,

like the Easter bunny himself,

racing to reach the stuffed pastels.

Curls still smell of soft pillow and cotton

as they bounce with their bodies

He is Risen!

Past the tulips blooming. And

before a puddle, a small, yellow

and hatched from an egg,

a duckling as it plays

at the children’s feet,

greeting the happy faces

and hands that feed, then there!

There’s an egg, they rush

to see. Hop, hop, hop goes a bunny

white, fluffy and fast on his feet.

The blessed smiles on siblings

only families get to see.

Poem by Heather Piatek

My toddler now has her first pair of yellow, flowered rainboots she wears on walks, just in case there’s a puddle she can jump into. This is where I got them https://amzn.to/4iw2qSW. As soon as we unpackaged them and put them on her little feet, she sprang up and said, “Mama let’s go find a puddle!” These are the moments I live for. Finding joy in the sweet little moments with my family.

Blessings!