Mornings with Brother Bear

I have begun a personal project recently. I am cultivating a photo series called "Mornings with Brother Bear" that is documenting and following my mornings with my son. There is coming a day, sooner than I would like, that he will be headed off to pre-school. How did this happen? I ask myself. I am still trying to figure that out. I have enjoyed my mornings with him so much, even as uneventful as they are most days.

He's so active, adventurous, loud, and slightly unruly. He teaches me so much and keeps me humble (ha!). But something very unexpected happened when we began our mornings alone together. It got quiet. Many mornings are spent cuddled on the couch with me working on the computer and him right beside me. Playing cars, watching TV, reading books, or just chatting with me. It has been an unexpected and very welcomed few hours of our day. Who knew? Sometimes he even comes to my office with me and sits on the swing beside me with his notepad or cars and "works". I love our simple mornings.

One day he will be grown and we will have an empty nest; maybe he will have a wife or little bear cubs of his own. Will my memory remember these little details in 50 years? Maybe. Will he? Probably not. But at least he will be able to look back at these and see what it was like. He will see how much I truly loved him and know that I valued our quiet time together.  

Here's the first photo of the series. I don't normally eat breakfast, but the past few mornings I've woken up really hungry. I fixed him a bowl of cereal and it just looked so good, so I fixed myself a bowl and plopped in the seat beside him. We did "cheers" with our spoons and went to work on that deliciously sweet and satisfying bowl of Frosted Flakes. I sat there watching him eat his cereal and it dawned on me that these were important memories we were making here. So, I snapped a few shots and then put my camera away to enjoy the rest of my cereal.

While it may not seem like much to others, this means everything to me. Today, I am very thankful for my Mornings with Brother Bear.