5 More Minutes!

Recently,  I had one of those parenting moments where I made the right decision and saw the results immediately. 

I think it was the Monday night after the time change a few weeks ago, and it was my night to put Riley to bed. We did all our usual - read books, lights out and rock a few minutes. Then when I went to put him in bed, he pointed back to the rocking chair and said "More rocking peez Mommy". I have to admit there are nights when he does this and I say we already rocked - it's time for bed because I have a list of 20 things I need to get done between the time he goes to bed and I do swirling through my head - workout, load the dishwasher, etc. But for whatever reason, this night - I chose not to care about all that and live in the moment. As I was rocking him, I was thinking - oh how I'll have hours and days of wishing for 5 more minutes of rocking chair time when he's older!

Riley must have sensed my thoughts because he upped the ante even more! I got some of the best Riley snuggles I've gotten in a while. We rock at night, but he's a busy body til the moment he falls asleep so he's always squirming and chatting me up the whole time. But this time he sat still and quiet and rubbed my arm. Then he sat up while I was rocking him, grabbed my face and said I WUV you Mommy! And I can't think of ANYTHING else that could top reward for a simple "5 more minutes" investment of my time! 


Obviously, I don't always reflect back on "moments" and think I did the right thing, but this night there was NO question I made the right decision!