five minute friday {on saturday}: stretch

What is about motherhood that moves you outside of your comfort zone?  Moves you to places you never dreamed of?  Stretches you beyond your limits?

My family just returned from vacation at the beach.  A place I adore {with the exception of sand}!  But let me just lay this out there for you.  You know, in case you weren't aware of the obvious.  Vacation with a toddler is not a relaxing, refreshing, read-a-book-a-day-while-lying-in-the-sun-all-day type of trip.  It is much, much different.

This trip was met with a teething toddler who is exerting her independence a little more with each passing day. 

But this year, vacation was a little sweeter.  A little more special.  I saw this vacation through the eyes of my fourteen month old daughter.  And she soaked up every single minute. 

She fed ducks.  She played in the sand.  She ran towards the water.  She splashed in the surf. 

And rather than staying safely perched in my lounge chair and basking in the sun, I enjoyed these things with her. 

And when she decided to wallow on my lap with her sandy bottom and hands and face, I soaked that up too. 

Yes, this thing called motherhood stretches you and shapes you and molds you into a better version of yourself.  If you allow it to. 

I'll take that sandy bottomed sweet baby girl wallowing all over me any day of the week.  Because the simple word she speaks to me melts my heart each and every time.  Mama. 

Being a mama is like nothing I could have imagined.  Instead, it is so much more.  So much, much more.  And then some.