If you chat with any parent of a young child, especially of toddler age, they will tell you that parenting is both so adorable and sweet, yet completely and utterly exhausting at the same time. And how could it not be? Toddler age children are learning more and more about the world around them and absorbing it, figuring out what their place is. They get excited by the little things that we adults take for granted. They’re responding to all their different stimuli. While all that is happening, they’re also discovering their emotions and how people or things will respond to them, which could potentially result in tantrums. No parent likes tantrums. But most parents who love their children would agree that moments like the below are what makes parenting during this period so sweet.

We were on a cushy layover at London Heathrow Airport early Sunday morning, so Chris decided that we should spend time at the Cathay Pacific Lounge to shower, rest, and eat before our connecting flight. The Cathay Lounge at Heathrow is particularly gorgeous and comfortable in that it has floor to ceiling windows to give you a full-on view of planes on the runway, coming and going. Kaia is really loving all motor-operated things now. She loves watching cars and trucks on the road, and she really enjoys identifying airplanes. When she sees them, she visibly gets excited and starts saying “airplane! plane! fei ji!” nonstop, and she keeps watching them with her full interest. She stood intently at the corner of the room, looking outside the window and watching the planes constantly coming and going. But when there was a break and no planes came for a while, she kept looking out the window, then up at Chris, signing “more” with the fingertips of both hands tapping each other. I didn’t observe this initially and Chris saw it first, but when he told me about it when I came back from my shower, I couldn’t help but gush and just think it was too adorable. I then subsequently heard Kaia repeatedly say “more? more?” for more planes, and sign it with her hands.

These are some of the best toddler moments, the ones I want to have emblazoned in my mind forever to remember how precious she is.