Excuse me...

But I am feeling sentimental. Tonight the kids fell asleep much like they do every night. I read them a bedtime story or two and then they climb into their beds. I tuck Caden in first, he is always first one in, the 'tired winner'. I give him a goodnight kiss and hug, then over to Violet for the same. Violet felt the need to use a cold hot water bottle as a pillow tonight! I turn on their nightlight and then its lights out and I switch on their nightly 20 minutes of lullabies. In the dark I say "I love you Caden, " and he replies "I love you too Mama." "I love you Violet," "I wuv you too Mommy." I sit next to Violet's bed and hold her hand until she falls asleep. Tightening her grip on my hand here and there as she starts to drop off and suddenly any grip she had has gone and her hand lays soft and upturned on the sheets and I tuck it under the blanket. Once she is asleep, usually around five minutes, I start to leave the room and in the doorway I stop and begin to close the door. Caden who looks like he is already sleeping pops up and asks me to leave the door open, "Of course baby." Then without words we smile and each make a heart shape with our hands and then spray our fingers out like fireworks (our universal sign for "I love you and you make my heart super happy!") And then he drops his smiley sleepy head back on to his pillow and I go down. But tonight I sat still in the dark, managing to switch out Violet's hottie for a real pillow while still holding her hand, listening to them both breathing deeply and peacefully in their sleep. It washed over me how lucky I was to have them and in that moment I loved them so much I wanted to wake them up right there and them to tell them one more time. But I didn't. I just came downstairs to wait for Mikey to come home...

I hope they know how much I love them and that I will ALWAYS love them, and I hope they know that they can't ever disappoint me and that I am their biggest cheerleader for life.

When they are fully grown and I look back at this time from when they were small, I bet its moments like these that I will remember rather than just the bigger things like fancy vacations and holidays. These simple daily interactions could get looked over as just 'routine', but for me, the little things are really what its all about.

Looking a little like scruffy muffins today with chalk all over them! :)

Everyday kind of stuff