Do you see me?

One of the things I love about being a mom is how our kids' unique personalities give us the gift of understanding ourselves more. For example, Linnea gave me the gift of discovering how much I love being a girl and all things girly (a topic for another post) and Hannah has reminded me how important it is to be seen, to be noticed.

I am not sure if it is because Hannah senses that she does not have our undivided attention like her sister had or if it is just her personality but our sweet Hannah loves to be seen. The moment her eyes meet with ours her face lights up with delight in being noticed. If she sees us watching her she will try harder at whatever she is doing-her jumps in her jumparoo are higher, her attempt to crawl becomes closer, her laugh becomes louder, her smile becomes bigger.

Sometimes I will be doing something and get a feeling that I am being watched. I will look up and see Hannah staring at me with a look that begs to be seen. It makes me try harder to put down the iphone, put away the laptop, put off the chores and the projects for when I see that smile my heart overflows with happiness as I know I have made her feel loved, valued, and important.

Hannah reminds me that all of us need to be seen and acknowledged. She reminds me to make eye contact with checker and sincerely asks them about their day. She reminds me to look into the eyes of the homeless person and say hi even when I don't have a dollar to give. She reminds me of the humanity in everyone, and to treat people as the valued image of God that they are.

Mom attention while big sis at preschool.

Trying to crawl-she always pushes up the highest when she sees us watching her.

WOW! Didn't quite work.

The happy girl tries again. (wow my girls look alike!)

And attempts another move forward but...

....ended up accidentally rolling over instead.

"Hmm this is not what I planned."

"Oh, good you are still watching me!"

"But do you think you could give me a hand back up, thanks?"