My new reality

A new Anthropologie catalog arrived yesterday.

And this post was going to be about my favorite images, especially the one of the girl in the jungle which makes me think that warm and luscious weather is somewhere around the corner, just waiting for me. I love the dress and the funky colorful necklaces with it. And then I wanted to swoon over the rustic house (supposedly in Jamaica somewhere) in which the home photos were styled. I love every imperfect nook.

And then, a tired and somewhat bored toddler made his way to the table and snatched the catalog into his  chubby little hands, all the time saying "hela, hela" in the hopes that this new piece of reading material might be about helicopters, trucks and fire engines. I watched him flip through the pages while I sauteed the tofu and admired his fascination with the bugs that graced one page and the unexpected little girl who graced another. I mean, it had been just as fascinated just a few moments earlier.

When dinner was ready, he decided that his new found piece of reading material would serve just as well as a placemat and pushed away my attempts to remove it before placing his food and drink on top of it. And so, I let it be.

I let it be and watched as the pages became saturated with spilt water and Pad Thai that didn't make it in his mouth. I watched as the pages started to ripple under the weight of the liquid that it wasn't intended to hold. I watched as the one page I hadn't yet photographed became a blurry mess. I watched as he ate every bit of Pad Thai with gusto and smiled that I had made something we were all devouring.

I don't think the creative team at Anthropologie had intended their catalog to become a placemat, but for me, yesterday, it became a moment to savor. A moment to remind me of my new reality and just smile.