Monday, October 20, 2008

The Simple Joys of Life


Right now, I think what I enjoy the most about my boys is seeing their joy. I feel blessed to have such happy boys and wonder some days if every baby and 3 year old are this happy. I sure hope they are.

I get so much joy from their joy and most of the time it is the result of a simple decision on our part or just taking a moment to have fun with them. Most of these moments are delightfully free and worth more than gold!

Evan was thrilled to be kissed by Daddy or smiled at by Mama this weekend. His giggles filled the room and our hearts. Nathan loved to skip a nap for an hour at the park with Daddy!

But a truly golden moment for Nathan came quite unexpected on Sunday afternoon. He had turned down a second trip to the park to play in the backyard in his sandbox. That was all he wanted to do! I stayed inside with Evan to try to get a few things cleaned up (what was I thinking!). Before I could get started, the phone rang - it was James’s Mom. They were about 10 minutes away picking up a load and wanted to know if Nathan could come and see their truck!

James’s mom and step-dad are truck drivers. They drive for Schneider National - the big orange trucks you will see all the time on the highway if you start to look for them. When Nathan was one year old they gave him a great diecast metal Schneider truck bank for Christmas. (“It’s not a toy, it’s a bank”) Well, we couldn’t really tell a one year old not to play with the coolest truck he had ever seen, so that truck is a much loved toy. Soon after that Christmas and to this day, every time Nathan sees a Schneider truck he will point and scream “Big Bank Truck!!!” It’s our favorite game when driving.

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, these are just a few novels from our brief visit with Grandma and Grandpa Vandever.






Can you just see the joy! Nathan had a blast running all over, around and under that truck. What a thrill! He got to sit in the driver’s seat, check out the bed in the back, stand on the cat walk, walk all around the underneath and every child’s dream - pull the airhorn!



Evan napped through part of the visit, but I think he was a little overwhelmed by the truck! He calmed down quickly and enjoyed looking around while Nathan played.



It was such a wonderful surprise in our day and brought so much joy we would never have wanted to miss it. Thank you so much for calling us Melanie - Nathan had a great time! (And after we got home he got to play in the sandbox while I made dinner.)

Thank you for adding to our joy!

No comments: