Sometimes there are moments in life that I wish I could just freeze and never leave.

So often those moments have to do with one of my kids.

Often they are moments that I see one of my kids do something, that I know soon enough they will be “too old” to enjoy, or have lost their “childhood innocence and wonder”.

I had one of those moments this past weekend with Josh.

It wasn’t our weekend to have the kids and that normally means we have a Friday night to ourselves because Zach and Josh are with their Dad every Friday night. But this week, he had to be away, which meant we had Zach and Josh.

Zach wanted to spend the night with his best buddy; so he did. Which meant we had some one on one time with Josh.

I had wanted to go to the big annual one of a kind show to look for some things for our living room (we are redecorating). So, I convinced Josh that it would be fun if we went on Friday night.

At first he wasn’t so keen. Then I convinced him that there would be some yummy food, so he was good to go.

We went just as the snow was starting to fall.

We started walking around and checking out all the amazing things people make.

Josh was seriously into it. Within a few moments he had bought Zach some really cool pins, and was scouting out paintings that he thought I would like (and he did find me some good ones!). He also found a great little Christmas ornament for our family (7 little penguins that they personalized with our names), and a nice gift for our little cousin.

Then, he saw the cutest little puppet.

I think it was love at first sight.

He went running over to him, picked him up, asked how much he was and decided immediately that he was so worth spending his own money on.

He named him Chris Mas. (First and last name).

All night, and actually the entire weekend, he held Chris. He slept with him, carried him around the house, played indoor soccer with him, had him beside him at dinner… I mean did everything with him. He talked to him, groomed him, and kissed him.

It was so cute.

So cute but it made me sad. We are soon heading into a time where he won’t fall madly in love with a hand puppet monster. He won’t name an inanimate object, and cuddle and kiss him soon enough. He will lose that childhood innocence. So I wish I could bottle it all up and keep him like this forever.

For now, I will just engrave this memory in my heart and encourage and love Chris along with him to keep the imagination and the innocence alive for as long as I can.

Welcome to the family Chris.