Why I love 3 year olds...

Last night, Talia was extremely....energetic.  She kept dragging me off to show me things...the (rather large) pile of stuffed animals and dolls on her bed, the baby stuffed animals she was caring for, the contraband marbles she was playing with...

I was really tired.  Our neighbors are putting new siding on their house, but the resulting sounds of construction made it so that I didn't get any sleep yesterday after working the night before.  I was just trying to crash on the couch, but then, again, I heard her sweet, excited little voice...

"Mommy...MOMMY, come see, come see!!!!"  (while standing at our sliding glass door). 

"What do you see?" (me, dragging myself  off the couch because I couldn't resist the joy in her voice). 

"The clouds are stripes of orange and purple and pink and blue!"  "Come look Mommy!" 

(I come look, and witnessed one of the daily miracles of living in this beautiful place where we live...)

From November 2010

"It's so, so pretty mommy!"  (my daughter, with simple joy in her voice). 

She was so excited, and even more so when I got out my camera.  I would have missed it, if it hadn't been for my princess. 

I have always been fascinated by the beauty that surrounds us.  I still get caught up in the bright blue skies with splotches of cottony white clouds in the summer, the stark yet perfect stillness and pure white after a winter snowstorm, the soft, sweet spring green that floods the mountains, the beauty of the autumn leaves falling....I love nature scenes, and I love that we live in a place where there's such a variety of beauty to behold seasonally. 

I really love that somehow I've been able to pass that love of nature's beauty along to my daughter...that my joy in nature's beauty is also her joy. 

It's also fun that her language skills are progressing so that she can express it!