Breathing it all in

Ever have one of those moments during your day that you just need to take a long, cleansing, deep breath in... and let it back out...? I do quite often. This morning I was trying to teach Rachel (my soon to be 7 year old) a new consonant digraph, explain why we don't have Christmas in the summertime to my 5 year old, and calm my sleepy, cranky, crying 16 month old whom I am desperately trying to change her morning nap routine. I needed one of those breaths. So... I announced "break time" for the school girls and went into the den where Ellie was simply throwing a fit. I sat down on the floor, scooped her up in my arms, cleaned her pitiful little nose, and just rocked her, taking in that much needed deep breath. And that's when I breathed in the sweetest smell in the whole wide world. It was a mixture of juice, waffles with syrup, bananas and cheerios... the remnants of her breakfast. She immediately calmed down and started breathing softly, then she started whispering something unintelligible to me that I wish I could understand, and I just leaned my head over onto hers and breathed it all in. And the thought occurred to me, sometimes we need to just stop and smell the syrup.