I always said when I was little that when I grew up, I wanted to see the world through my kid’s eyes- to put myself in their shoes.

Some of that was probably me being frustrated with my parents for telling me “no” for something that I thought I should get, but I really meant it. I promised myself that when I grew up, I would hold on to the memory as tightly as I could of what it was like to be a child, to think like a child, to create memories like a child.

And I remember when I had my first daughter, the weight of that hit me.

Every decision I made- where we lived, who our friends were, where we went to church, what we ate, how we spent our time, my hobbies, everything was going to come together to create the landscape that would define her little world.

It would be the backdrop upon which she would build all of her earliest and most important memories. And I tried to constantly put myself in her shoes, to think about what it was like to be experiencing life from her perspective. What it was like to be in this little family we had created.

I often don’t do a very good job of it.

Especially once we had two children, I found it so difficult- I was just surviving. But now that my second daughter is a bit older and they are playing together, being sisters, I think about it often.

How much do I overlook her “world” and stay caught up in my current stress, my hangups, my inner drama? How often do I allow myself to get lost in her perspective?

When I do, it is a beautiful thing.

“Evie’s World”, as we call it, is a magical place. It is filled with the innocence and wonder at all the magic life can muster. It is a place where the good guys always win, and the heroes are kind and brave. The narratives consist of several Disney movies, books we read to her, and Bible stories. And they are so, so real to her.

We spent an entire evening this past weekend playing out the entire Cinderella story.

We switched characters as needed, but I was Cinderella for the majority of it. She directed the play, and in her mind it was as real as anything could be. As we played, I forgot about everything on my to-do list. All my stress slowly slipped away, and I got lost in her world. It was amazing, and I wondered to myself: “why don’t I do this more often?”.

I like the way the world looks through Evie’s eyes.