As mamas, we’re busy. There’s no doubt about that. In any given day, we’re running this way and that, cleaning up messes, soothing skinned knees, taking care of errands, answering the phone, reading the same book for the thousandth time and rushing to get to appointments on time. And everything takes longer when your sidekicks are wee people.

But then I saw the above photo last night on Instagram, and it struck me. What if I truly saw my surroundings through the eyes of a child? How much more beauty and awe would there be in each day!

I couldn’t stop thinking about this, so I emailed Erin, who took these photos of her daughter Phoebe. “The flowers were just outside a local grocer’s, Metropolitan Market,” she told me. “There are lots of opportunities for wonder and beauty in our everyday life, and slowing down to Phoebe’s pace helps me recognize them and stop to appreciate them.”

Erin practices slowing down to her daughter’s pace when it comes to clothing, too. She lets Phoebe “have as much influence as possible over her clothes”, by laying out two or three choices and letting Phoebe pick what she wants to wear. “It makes her happier about them, and also it makes getting dressed easier (even though it does take longer).”

For their mama-daughter outing to Metropolitan Market, Phoebe wore: