It was the sweetest little voice. That’s all I could hear at the time because I was busy looking for a cake mix in the aisle of Walmart, and she was behind me. I was on a mission to get out of there, so I tried not to pay much attention to the conversation, but it was beckoning me anyway. This precious little girl, in her squeaky little 3-4 year-old voice, was explaining that she was going to be a princess for Halloween. Excitedly, she went on about how the costume would look; it was going to have this color here and that bow there. It’s then I couldn’t help myself and I turned see who she was passionately talking to because whoever it was, wasn’t saying a word in response. She was with her Dad, because at some point she tried to get his attention and said, “Daddy.” He was busy looking at something he was likely to purchase. I could tell he had a lot on his mind. I had a flashback to the time when my children were that age. It felt like I had gone back in time, and I was the one rushing around trying to do too many things at once and missing the moment of my own daughter’s excitement over a holiday. I gave the precious soul a big smile and turned back around to look for the cake mix. Big tears filled my eyes as I realized how much I missed the times when my girls were young. You see, the cake mix was to send to my daughter at college so she and her friends could make her cake since she would be gone on her birthday. I wanted so badly to turn back around and tell the young father to soak in this moment, to soak in his daughter's tiny little body, to soak in that precious, squeaky voice, but I refrained. He probably would have taken me for a crazy person giving that sentiment with tears in my eyes and breaking down in the middle of Walmart.
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