Little moments.

There are little moments, when life slows down, and time just seems to stand still.

It gets a little crazy at bedtime at my house. Three kids, all who still need to be tucked in, read to, cuddled with, let's just say it takes awhile! I find myself rushing sometimes, partly because I'm tired, partly because it's gotten too late and they need to get to sleep. But there's one of them, who can always make me slow down.

Annie Grace. This girl, this second daughter and middle child of mine, completely captures me at night.

She only has a handful of books she wants to choose from, and she usually chooses the same two every night. Goodnight Moon is almost always picked. She has it memorized, and so now, she reads it to me. She's so proud of herself for "reading"! After we read, we snuggle, and then she starts telling me things...

Stories about her day, or things that happened last week. She'll think of things from our vacation, and we'll re-live our Disney days (only the good parts :). Sometimes she'll pull something completely obscure from the depths of her memory, like a play and exercise class we attended once, a year ago. She will just talk and talk. I usually have to stop her, and tell her it's time to be quiet, but sometimes it takes me awhile. I love hearing her sweet voice, I love finding out what's in that little brain of hers. Often I come out from her room to see that I've been in there for 30 minutes!

She does the same thing with her daddy. We take turns tucking her in, and on his nights, I love standing in the hall outside her room for just a few moments, and listening to her talk to him. It melts my heart.

In the midst of our very busy life, she slows me down, and makes me listen. I thank God for her, she is the calm between the two tornadoes. :)

She'll be four and a half on Sunday. So, happy half birthday Annie! I have loved seeing your personality shine this year!

And thank you for these little moments at night, they are precious to me.