Favorite moments: Coming home

I worked from noon to seven today at the hospital. As soon as I got off work, I called Matt's phone, which he passed over to Eden. She excitedly asked, "When you coming home? You going put me to bed?!" Matt said he would hold her off so that I could, and when I pulled in the driveway, there was a curly-haired little girl in her pajamas waiting for me with a big smile on her face.

And, while Eve was already in bed, Eden was kind enough to let me know that "Eve happy you're home, too." What better thing to come home to?

Another favorite thing? Kids clutching stuffed animals. What is cuter?? In addition to her central favorite, Pound Puppy Hunt Chief (pictured above, and inherited from my childhood), Eden also maintains bedtime ties with a yellow lamb, several Elmos, a few baby dolls, and several farm animal hand puppets. Eve is a bit simpler, focusing mainly on her favorite, a red stuffed octopus. There's nothing better than walking in on them asleep and clutching one of their buddies, or in Eden's case, traipsing into our bedroom in the morning (or the middle of the night) trailing one or all of them.

Favorite Moments: Since regular blogging is clearly beyond me right now...

...and by far the most useful function of the blog is the one it serves for us, kind of a family scrapbook/journal, I've decided to at least try to post periodically some of my favorite everyday moments with our family, so that someday we can look back and remember what life was like with two small children, after (all too soon) they're grown and gone.

Today: spending a long while reading books with Eden, out on the swing on a sunny afternoon. Her current favorites (all from my childhood as well, and actually all written before 1962): A Fish Out of Water, Little Bear's Visit, and A Big Ball of String. She's got a surprisingly long attention span for how active she is, and we spend a lot of time these days reading books. We do a lot of fill-in-the-blanks when we read, both because it keeps her engaged and because I love to hear her talk ("I can do anysing with my big ball of fwing!"). Snuggling on a swing with a wiggly, dirt-smeared, curly-haired little girl: life doesn't get much better than that.