All She Can

I think most parents joke and tease with their kids about how much they are loved. Just this morning, Keegan told me she loved me and, like so many times before, I asked her how much. She threw her arms out as wide as she could and said, "This much!" I jokingly asked her little three year old self, "Is that all? That's not very much!" She took it in her usual good natured stride, scrunched up her nose, grinned and said, "Yep!" As the conversation moved on though, I thought more about what I said. 

By units of measure, her arms don't stretch that far. She is tall for her age (87th percentile as of Wednesday), but that's still not very tall by human standards making her arm span not very big. Even an adult, with their arms spread wide, can't show how much a parent would hope to be loved by their child. 

But I then reflected to myself on how that was as far as she could reach and that's how much she loved me. As wide as her arms would move apart, as far as she could stretch them, that's how much she loved me. She loved me, in a unit of measure, as much as she possibly could. When you think about it that way, it means so much more. She was telling me she loved me and physically showing me, that for her, it was as much as she could. And that's incredible. 

Thank you Keegan for loving me as much as you possibly can. I love you that much too!

(Photo restaged)