Sunday, January 16, 2011

Lavender

photo: freefoto.com

This week we used the last of my daughter's baby (no tears) shampoo.  You know the yellow one that everyone gets a dozen bottles of when they have a baby.  Well I used the last of the 2 1/2 year old gift.  So off to the store I went and stared at the different types, finally settling on the lavender one.  Now I know that lavender is supposed to help one sleep but I've never been particularly in love with the scent.  Maybe it is too mellow for my taste.  Tonight I washed her hair in it for the first time and, yes, she promptly took a nap (much to my dismay at the time as we are strict nap boycotters in this house).  After she woke up she was very cuddly with us and her brother, father, and myself all spent considerable time smelling her hair.  It is a beautiful, intoxicating smell that caused us all to come back for second and third sniffs.  Later, as I read her Winnie the Pooh in bed she laid her head on my chest and I just absorbed the delicious scent of her.  As she fell asleep cuddled there all I could think was this is why I do this, this is why I'm here as a "stay-at-home mom".  I'll never have the time again to lay in bed with my vivacious two year old at one a.m. smelling her hair and loving the very essence of her.  

Maybe that is what embracing today means.  That I need to slow down and smell the lavender.

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