I got to spend the day with my friend Maddie today.  She is four.  Easily my favorite age.

She showed up at my front door with her daddy at 7:15 this morning.  She was still in her princess nightgown and still had her “fresh out of bed” tangles in her hair.  And she was absolutely adorable. 

She gave her daddy a kiss and hug goodbye and ran in the other room with our dog.  As I said goodbye to her father at the front door, she came running back to grab his hand and kiss it one more time.  Then ran off giggling to face the day.

The day included chocolate chip pancakes, watching Snow White, baking cookies, a trip to the DMV, shopping at Target, a visit to the Halloween store, a grilled cheese sandwich, and a bike ride.  All simple things, but all so much more fun when you’re four.

There is so much to look at in awe when you’re little.  Giggles are always right  there on the verge of tumbling out all over the place.  You can entertain yourself while sitting at a state agency for an hour by making shapes and letters and numbers out of your fingers. You can dance and twirl and skip and jump in the middle of the aisles at the store.  You can greet strangers and tell them you like their hat.   Chocolate can make its mark all over your face and you can leave it there because it just makes you look cuter.  Your favorite color can be all of them – “my favorite color is green and red and pink and orange and yellow and blue…’  When your legs are tired you get to ride piggy back on a fifteen year old’s shoulders. You can smile for no reason at all.

You don’t care about what you look like.  Or what time it is.  Or what you’re doing an hour from now.  You get to fully live in every single moment and wring the life out of it.  And it’s glorious. 

There are lots of grown up things that we have to do every day.  But there are many more times when we can adopt the attitude of a four year old, loving and living our little hearts out. 

Maddie asked me the other day how old I was.  When I told her I was 45, she said, ” That’s almost like four!”  Mmmmmmm… I sure hope so, Maddie 🙂