More than Just a Batch of Cookies

C-Dub has a few favorites in life. Batman, Star Wars, Pizza, Root Beer and Root Beer Cookies. Cookies don't make the list simply by themselves. Only in the form of Root Beer Cookies. And today I decided C-Dub and I would have some mother-son time and bake his favorite cookies.

But this is about more than just the cookies. This is about spending time with a 4 year old boy, doing something with just him, for just him. 

It's about paying attention to him
and encouraging him,
praising him,
challenging him
and really and truly being with him.

Because when I take the time to do something he loves and to really and truly be with him while we do it, there's nothing quite like it in the world. Really absorbing the scope of his independence that I knew was there, but hadn't recently observed fully.

The conversations about teamwork as I scooped the dough and he squeezed the handles to drop the dough onto the cookie sheet.

The intensity with which he works.

The attention to detail he values.

The smirks and smiles and giggles and eyebrow raises that make this kid so... him. 

It's about observing him and seeing him in that way that I miss even though I spend every day with him.

It's about pushing aside the cell phone and the computer, the dirty dishes and the laundry and reconnecting with this kid on a deeper level.

It's about seeing how he's growing and changing and becoming a big kid and not just a preschooler who has temper tantrums and crying fits and fights with his sister and only wants to eat pizza.

It's about recognizing his creativity and oneness. How unique he is and what a blessing he is to my life.

It's about the perspective he adds to my days.

These are the days and times I hope he remembers. The memories he'll carry with him in his young life and into adulthood. The things he'll recall with fondness. These are the memories that I hope overtake and block out the times I yelled at him to get his shoes on because I didn't want to be late. To block out the nights I said "no, I'm not reading to you tonight because you stayed up too late playing". To block out all the times I'm not his favorite person in the whole entire world.

So our activity today was more than just a batch of cookies... a whole lot more.