It'll melt your heart

I have so much more on this that I'd like to share now, but so very little time to do it. The littlest one is making enough noise to indicate she's either had enough of sitting with Dad and staring at patterns on the furniture and wall hangings or that she's getting hungry again.

The little man has adjusted fairly well to life as a sibling. He has his moments, though, where I think he'd rather she disappear. He's gotten better the last several days - aided in large part by the fact that we're all falling into habits and routines together. This settling in has allowed us some comfort in putting a sleeping infant in some contraption like a swing or vibrating seat and focusing sololy on the toddler. The bit of "just me" time has nearly eliminated any trace of jealously or hurt feelings the little guy ever had. In fact today, when he thought Grandma was taking littlest one away for eternity (see next paragraph for more details) he was devestated and said very seriously "No Grandma! No take her away! She live here with me!"

Today we took it one step further. Today Ms Little Thing went off with Grandma for a bit to make some very old ladies very happy. While they were off doing their visits, Little man and I had some much needed quality time. We hit the local landscaping joint for mums and free Halloween stuff (i.e. tiny pumpkin and cheapy trick or treat bag). We got lunch out. Then we headed over to a park in town and hiked out on a trail talking about everything from why the leaves are now red to how much we like throwing rocks in the marsh.

As we got down around the bend on the large open trail, Little Man stopped walking, placing himself directly in front of me instead of next to me as he had been. He turned and faced me, holding up his arms and said "Mommy, pick me up for a kiss please."

So I did. I mean really, who can turn that down?

Then he put his head down on my shoulder and said very matter of factly "Thanks Mommy. I having a really nice time." With that he wiggled himself down and hit the trail again, running to the nearby bench and announcing that it was time to take a break because he needed to rest.

I just stood there a bit stunned and thinking how wonderful that simple sentence was to hear...I also thought about how I'd better document it now so in 10 years when he is 12 and parents are akin to demons I can remember a time when he actually was glad to be with me. ;)