Freeing up some time..

Lately my children have heard "I'm busy right now" more than I care to admit to. I was so happy that yesterday I was able to put the laundry on hold, fix dinner late, and walk around all the couch pillows that magically find themselves sprawled all over the floor... each and every single day.
My sweet little girl wanted to play store. I often find that my ability to pretend play is almost non-existent. I don't know how this happened. I was an only child, so pretend play and I were buddies. I played for hours at a time with only my imagination and my toys to keep me company. So although I really didn't want to at the time, I played store with Abby. She set up her room like a store, complete with a shopping basket, items to purchase (which included our cat, O'Malley), a cash register and play money for me. We had fun playing pretend and after a few minutes it all came back to me. I'm so glad we got to play.
After we were done playing we all went outside, the whole family. It was beautiful. Abby practice some swings with her new t-ball tee and new bat. (girl can HIT). After awhile I decided I better make use of the nice day and go for a walk. I asked Alex if he'd like to go with me and surprisingly he said yes. I figured he wouldn't make it very far, but we walked around most of the neighborhood and then the neighborhood pond. A total of 1.3 miles. During that walk, we raced each other, we laughed, we joked, and he did an awful lot of talking. I couldn't love my son more, but after our walk together I think I appreciate him more. I appreciate how his mind works. He's ALWAYS thinking. Always wondering, always trying to learn more and more and more. He talked about dinosaurs and how he thinks the Super Croc (Sarcosuchus imperator) was a big factor in the reason why the dinosaurs went extinct. He suggested that we did up the back yard to see if there are any fossils buried. (I veto'd that idea, but said maybe he could look elsewhere). He also talked about how the great mammoths died because the earth got too warm. I'm telling you people, he's going to be some type of zoologist, or scientist, or a museum curator. The way he talks about these things... he's so passionate about it, he's so informative and he makes me want to learn more.
When we got back home I watch Alex play catch with his daddy. Last year he couldn't catch a ball... at all. He caught more than half yesterday. ;)
So to say we had a good day yesterday is an understatement. Its amazing what we can gain when we are able to put our "business" on hold.