The following scene.....

did not amuse me.

It actually made me quite angry.

I was tired and had a headache.

My to-do list was hanging over my head like a noose.

All I wanted was a minute to brush my hair and teeth and find some earrings.

Not too much to ask for.

Every waking minute of the morning leading up to this moment

had been colored with an angry, teething toddler.

A toddler, screaming, biting, drooling and climbing his presence all over me.

Without a a moments pause.

It was 9:30am and I was ready to tuck myself back into bed and call it a day(a really hard and exhausting day, at that).

So when the quiet came.....

I took it without question.

I should have questioned the calm.

The absence of screaming snotty breath at my side......

I am a seasoned parent,

I know better.

On these kind of days, silent and alone comes with a cost.

But, perhaps, in my worn and weakened state, I did not care.

So I brushed my hair.

And I brushed my teeth.

I found the perfect purple earrings to match my shirt(that I had earlier pulled from the dirty clothes pile) and grabbed my shoes from the closet.

It was still so very quiet so I sat on my bed and put them on.

And as I walked out of my bedroom door, a wave of suspicion rolled over me.

Where was this toddler of mine?

The one who would not leave my side today?

The one who blamed me

for every ounce of his extreme displeasure with the universe this morning?

"Ezra?", I called out into the disturbing silence.

I heard a rustle. Well, more of a crunchy scatter.

And then a overjoyed giggle.

The unmistakable giggle of a toddler who has found his way into a pile of trouble.

Or in this case........

A pile of cereal.

An entire box of cereal that a tired mother had left within a little boy's reach

had been emptied onto the dining room floor.

The delighted child had placed himself in the very center of the pile and was wallowing in the joy of a million little golden balls of goodness at his fingertips.

I was not amused. I was angry, in fact.

I did not want to clean up that mess.

I had no time to clean up that mess.

But.......

I have been doing this mom thing long enough,

and I have been married to a photographer for long enough

to know

that it was worth getting over myself

and grabbing the camera.

Because some day.........

when he is off doing what grown men do.......

and I can hardly remember what it's like to change a diaper......

I will have long since forgotten the fatigue and frustration

and the to-do list will be obsolete.

These photographs with make me giggle and remind me of how sweet it all really was.