Last night we curled in her bed and read together, and I watched her fingers trace the outline of Maid Marion’s wedding dress. Her eyes lit up and then turned dreamy, and I knew where her mind had gone–to her own white dress and flowers and dreams of weddings and husbands and families. She loves to imagine that day.

I shook back tears and mentally screamed, “Must. stop. time!”

We read Dumbo together, Bear curling in with us, and she finger traced the Mommy and baby together and cried when they were separated. “That’s how I feel when I’m away from you, Mommy. Well, some of the time. I really like to be at school, too. I guess I’m torn in two.”  Read more... (750 words, 4 images, estimated 3:00 mins reading time)

Mommy? You wear jeans a lot, don’t you?

I do, honey bunches of redheadedness, Why?

Well. Perhaps you should consider wearing more skirts and different pants, you know, so you look nicer.

She’s five, y’all. What will she say when she’s fifteen?

When she was born, our doctor yelled (literally) triumphantly, “It’s a girl!” The nurses cheered, I cried, and Brian just grinned, looking a bit shell-shocked. (He was convinced we were having another boy, and because there are just so few surprises left in life, we had decided to not find out what we were having with my pregnancies.)

After they had weighed her and cleaned her and pronounced her a 9.9 on the Apgar test, they swaddled her and placed her in my arms. The setting sun streamed through the windows as I held her marveling at each one of her features, so tiny and new and breathtaking. She settled and slept.  Read more... (804 words, estimated 3:13 mins reading time)

She arrives at our bedroom door with her dolly in arms, cooing, cuddling, kissing and beaming. She waltzes out of bed. I am convinced of this. She must, because as we go about our morning routines, she cannot stop the motion of her feet or the humming from her heart as she cheers us as we work and prepare for the day.

Oh, how she delights!  Read more... (1329 words, estimated 5:19 mins reading time)