"When we love each other like this, hearts pop out of our brains."

I love how I wake up each morning. I don't need an alarm clock, because no later than 7:15 AM, my little girl will crawl into bed and wake me up with hugs and her question or commentary of the day. I am intrigued with how her 4-year old brain works. Earlier this week, after many hugs and kisses, Skye pressed her little face next to mine and said, "I think when we love each other like this, hearts pop out of our brains."

What a vivid imagination! She's recently taken an interest in comic books (Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes are her favorites), so I'm sure she was imagining a cloud over our heads with lots of Valentine hearts filling it up. I'm happy to know that she's happy and expressing her feelings in the sweetest, most profound ways. When you think about it, it takes time to recognize emotions like happiness and it's difficult to articulate them, which is why I loved her imagery. I also loved that she had the hearts popping out of our brains.

It reinforced my belief that the head and the heart are very much dependent on each other to keep balanced. Given the focus this month on Valentine's Day, she has been inundated at preschool with images and conversations about love. But, she's also been challenged academically (within the confines of a preschool curriculum) to feed her brain, learning how to read and write and absorbing lessons in science and social studies. I'm very proud to see her heart and mind getting nurtured so she can start to draw inferences and opinions of her own, such as the belief that hearts pop out of our brains when we love each other.

Lately, Skye's observations and questions serve as my morning devotional. I don't have the time or space to sit quietly each day before my family starts waking and demanding my attention. So, comments like hers help me stay balanced and spark my innate introspection, which is what fuels this blog. Her observations and the conversations we have help me to gauge how well we're doing with her in the parenting department. Despite the inevitable clashes we have with her when we are disciplining her 4-year old willfulness, she is most often a happy, content, active four-year old hungry for our time and affection.

Right now, her big brother Hunter is reading her a story to help her settle down for a nap, while I take care of our laundry. And tomorrow is Sunday, so Nickie and I will attend church together while Donna takes Hunter to swim lessons. We'll come back together at lunch time to eat and plan our grocery shopping at Whole Foods and start preparing for another busy week.  And while we do all of that, I'm sure if people look closely enough, they'll see the hearts popping our of our brains as we move through the world together.