Visiting my parents last night, Hunter, our almost 4-year-old, came across the 16×20 framed bridal portrait that hangs in their dining room. He has seen our wedding photos before and his curious little mind has had a lot of questions about weddings, marriage, the “white princess dress” and everyone in our wedding photos. He stared at this portrait of me and had a lot of questions like- Why was I holding flowers? Why is the dress white? Am I wearing a crown? (It was a headband.) I once read that toddlers ask something like 4,000 questions a day. True to form, Hunter is certainly on the high end of the spectrum.

Anyway, I don’t know about anyone else’s children but when Hunter wants to learn more about a particular subject, he says, “Tell me that story.” And you have to make up a full-blown story, include Once Upon a Time and in the story explain the subject at hand. It is exhausting. Recently I have spent countless hours making up stories of sharks, pirate ships, car washes, monster trucks, you name it. So, as we drove home, he asked me to tell him the story of our wedding. I told him all of the details: January, snowflakes, red shoes, tuxedo, church, limo, dinner, dancing and so on. He interrupted with so many questions-

Where did you get married?

New Jersey.

Why?

Because that is where Mommy is from.

Who was there? Did Mimi and Papaw go? Did they fly on an airplane?

Yes, our friends and family were there.

Were Aunt Jaclyn and Uncle Kevin in your wedding?

Yes, buddy, they were.

Why did you go on vacation after? Why did you get married? When was I in your belly? Why do you like red flowers? How was there room in your belly for DD?  Why don’t you still wear your dress, mommy?

The dress. When that topic came up, he got really stuck on “Mommy’s white princess dress.” It is very special and you only wear it one time, I explained. Mommy isn’t a princess like Princess Sophia who wears her dress every day, hoping that a Disney reference would help him understand.

Why?

Where is your dress?

In the pink bag in mommy’s closet. I’ll show it to you tomorrow if you’d like.

No, I wanna see it right now.

I really didn’t envision this happening but I should have known better. As soon as I opened the bag, he asked to touch it. Then he asked that I put it on so that he could sit on my lap as I was wearing it. How could I say no? At the same time, I thought, am I really doing this?

So, I put the dress on, my wedding dress that hasn’t been touched in over 8 years. Of course, it felt magical to put it on again. It seems you forget the beautiful, intricate details of your wedding dress after a few years, 2 kids, 2 house moves, etc. As it gets pushed further back in your closet over the years, it also goes to the back of your mind, I guess. And so I sat down on the couch, put him on my lap and he petted my dress and stared at me with a big grin. “Wow, mommy.” he said.

Hunter looked at me like I have never seen him look at me before. (The only time I saw this look on his face was when he watched the evening entertainment at our resort in Aruba. He liked one of the dancers in particular and looked as though he was just enamored of her.) I really think that he thought I was special because I had this dress and in that moment I was his princess. He melted my heart like never before. The love for a little boy and his mama is so special. Special like no one can describe to you in a way that you can fully comprehend before having children.

The moment didn’t last very long but it was documented. He took a few blurry photos of me with my phone after he insisted that I wear a necklace to complete my look. I felt ridiculous in a wedding dress, pony-tail, socks and a grey pearl necklace but that didn’t matter to him. While Deacon didn’t have much to say, he seemed to be entertained by all of this. These moments are certainly few and far between but writing this down hopefully helps me remember when they are grown and I am missing them as little boys.

He even told Daddy what had happened when he got home from work late last night.

I’m sorry I missed that. Josh said to Hunter. Don’t get any ideas now, Mommy is mine.

She’s mine too, Daddy.

The next morning, it was the first thing he talked about when he woke up.

Hey, mommy. Do you remember that you wore your princess dress last night?

Yes, I remember, Hunter.

Can we watch your wedding video tonight mommy?

Yes, we can do that, buddy.