Letting go and enjoying life

One Sunday morning Wyatt and I were hanging out in the kitchen together. Wyatt was crawling around, talking to the dog while I was cleaning the kitchen and making him some banana pancakes for breakfast. About 1 pancake in, Wyatt discovers how to open the bottom drawer on the island and soon the contents of that drawer all all over the kitchen floor.

My first instinct was to tell him no, that he couldn't play with that stuff and to shove everything back in the drawer and close it. As I was about to do this I pondered "Why". Nothing in that drawer is a danger to him (it's  full of bottles, sippy cups, etc) and he will do no harm by playing with those items. At first I kind of bit my lip because I'm not used to having a cluttered/unorganized house with bottle parts laying all over the floor. I am a self-proclaimed control freak when it comes to my house and seeing him throw hose toys about was like a constant scratch on my arm.

Then a few minutes pass and he's laughing and smiling and having a blast closing and opening the drawer and playing with it's contents. I then realize that its time to let go. He's having a great time and so what if my house is a little messy? I should be less fixated on the fact that there are random items on my kitchen floor and encourage him to explore, discover and learn.

After breakfast was ready, I put Wyatt into his highchair with a delicious pancake, I took 30 seconds to clean the items off of the floor. Then I look over at his face and see this staring back at me and realize that I would live with a kitchen floor full of items every day just to see that smile.