I had a precious moment the other day with Hanley. I have lots of those each day and luckily my phone is somewhere nearby so that I can grab it and snap a picture or shoot a quick video to capture the moment. At the end of each day after he falls asleep I sort through the moments with a smile and edit them down to just a few to keep and remember. Thank goodness for our beautiful smart phones that are able to do this for us.

However, I was on the beach the other day with Hanley. Just the two of us. I was relaxing on our beach blanket in the shade and he was playing all around me, climbing over me, poking at me – it was adorable. Eventually he started slowing down and getting super snuggly. He was sitting next to me and just flopped his head and little torso onto my belly. He relaxed there for a few minutes just people watching those around us…and then he fell asleep.

It was absolutely the sweetest feeling ever.

I carefully lifted my head to look down at him asleep on top of me in this awkward position and started patting around my sides for my phone so that I could capture this on camera. Except my phone was in my bag, behind our umbrella, totally too far away for me to grab in this position. I started freaking out!  My heart broke in half thinking how I wouldn’t be able to snap a picture of the cuteness that was happening.

Then I realized how silly I was being. I was wasting part of this precious moment stressing about my stupid phone and “capturing the moment” when I should have been soaking every bit of that moment in wholeheartedly right then and there. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. I noticed how it felt to have his tiny warm body sleeping on my belly. I felt his tiny little breaths against me. I stroked his tiny little arms that were resting on me. I reveled in the beauty of my little baby being so comfortable with me to just cuddle up and fall asleep. My heart felt like it was going to burst. Even just recalling this moment cracks my heart wide open and brings me right back to the love I felt.

It was a great reminder that I don’t always need my phone to capture these moments. My heart is the most important tool I have for that. I intend to not be so quick to grab my phone the next time something super sweet or cute happens but instead truly be with my son in the moment so that the moment is etched into my heart forever.