After a week where I had to remind myself to breathe quite often, it’s good to have some quiet time.

Life with a toddler is rarely quiet, especially with one who loves music and percussion instruments. He wailed at the top of his lungs earlier when Tim explained that ukuleles are not played by hitting them with the sticks from the xylophone.

I’ve taken to explaining to him that we can’t have the music turned on while we’re outside, at least not all the time. “What do you ears hear?” I ask him. He will tell me what he can hear if he has the words for it – truck, bike, tweet.

But some moments are quiet. And it’s getting easier to breathe.