He is my sunshine

Kaity Holtman

Nice weather at our house is more than welcome. Of course it is, probably for many of the same reasons everyone else enjoys it. But we’ve got a new reason in our world.

Sam is obsessed with being outside.

I mean, obsessed.

He is happy anyway, but he is the happiest kid when we go outside. He would play for hours if we’d let him.

He stays occupied with his bubble mower, Little Tikes car, mini jungle gym, and swing. Plus, he is obsessed with cows and could watch the neighbors’ cattle all day.

Our neighbors, who also happen to be my husband’s sister and her family, have had a bottle calf the last couple months. Every time we went to get the mail, we had to go check on “Calfy,” as my niece and nephew so cleverly named him.

He went to live with the bigger calves in the pasture over the weekend. Sam will be so sad this evening.

Either way, he’s pretty easy to entertain outside.

We even have snack time on a bench on the deck, and he moos to the cows.

And coming inside is torture.

We’ve had a string of rainy or cooler days this last week, so we haven’t been spending quite as much time outside. So now, the poor kid will grab his shoes and go sit by the door, grunting and pointing.

Or, if he sees one of us outside, he assumes he is going to get to go outside.

I love it. I would much prefer a kid who wants to play outside to one who just wants to sit inside.

His love for outdoors has re-energized my love for it as well.

Last year I didn’t plant any flowers because I was focusing on keeping an infant alive and growing instead.

This year we planted a few, and I can take care of them while he plays and watches me.

Now that he’s walking, but not too fast, I can let him play without worrying he’ll walk to the road before I can catch him. He thinks he’s fast, but it takes him a lot of tiny little steps to cover any ground.

But the pure joy he has outside reminds me to be thankful for every nice day we are given.

And some days when the weather isn’t nice enough to be outside, we have to get creative and do something else.

Even when things don’t go as we want or as we planned, we have to make the decision to still enjoy ourselves – something Sam doesn’t necessarily understand yet.

But I hope I am able to teach him by example that we make the most of the situation we’re in, because very rarely does life go exactly as we had planned.

In fact, I think he has already given me plenty of lessons in that realm.

Rarely do we make it out the door with everything we are supposed to take, or even on time.

Most days I don’t get everything done on my to-do list because I instead choose to read books or play with Sam, or because he is feeling a little needy for his mommy.

Sometimes we have to scrap plans or going somewhere we had intended, because we just need some down time at home.

And the older we get, and the more serious our big plans get, the more we need lessons like those – to remind us we are not in full control, but that God’s hand in our lives always takes precedence over our own plans.

Either way, we have to soak up every ray of figurative sunshine we can, to energize us for when those plans go another way.

Kaity Holtman is the Agriculture Editor for the Maryville Daily Forum.