World's Greatest Compliment

Recently I received the best compliment ever.

I'm not married to my brother.... you will all sigh a breath of relief for that admittance. But what that means, is that I'm not married to the King of Words of Affirmation, for any of you '5 Love Languages' readers out there. I'm not married to the guy that gives glowing praises in the form of flowery, romantic compliments. Given that my love language just happens to be Words of Affirmation, I soak it up like a sponge. For any of you who know my brother, he absolutely ruined me for all other men in the 'compliment' department. We roomed together in college, so I spent 3 years enjoying all kinds of ego boosting compliments about how pretty or smart I was, what a good friend I was, or any other number of glowing words of encouragement and brotherly praise.

Anyway, I digress.

A few days ago I was riding bikes home with the kids after school. As we rode through a tunnel of leafy green with delicate slices of brilliant blue sky and perfect dapples of shady patterns splashed across the pavement of our oak lined street, I told the kids "Isn't this street the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" We rode along quietly  enjoying the soft scent of new leaves and newly cut grass.  I was truly absorbed in the moment and caught completely off guard when my little Cooper said (after quite a long pause of deep thought) "Actually, it's not mom, that's you!".

Oh be still my beating heart! My sweet, sweet five year old managed to take my breath away for a fleeting moment of tender mom heaven.