Moments

The last few weeks have had their stresses. Er, I mean, the last month. Or two.

But MAN have I had some sweet, sweet moments with my kiddos lately.

Jane has turned into a cuddler! It's crazy. She loves to snuggle and lay down by me and kiss and hug. A lot. Maybe it's just cuz she misses her Daddy so I get all his hugs, too?

The other day I was sitting on the stairs painting the walls for my mom and Jane laid down on her belly on the landing so her head was level to mine. She put her arms around my neck and gave me a bunch of kisses on my cheek. Her kisses, by the way, are her pressing her wide, tight lips (almost like a smile) against whatever she is kissing and then making a squeaky, sucking noise. No puckering. Then she said in a confident command:
"OK Mommy. You kiss me lots. I will laugh."
And so I did. And so did she. Cracked me up.

Emiline will give kisses, too. When she really wants to kiss, she'll put her lips, sometimes open, sometimes closed, in the general area of my mouth. Then she'll smile and giggle. If she is just obliging me or someone else and she's not really in the mood, she'll just lean in her forehead to your lips. Well, it's more of a head butt to the lips. And if she flat out doesn't want to, she'll push you away. She's a bit spicy, that one!

I love it when my kids sing. Jane has been playing around more and more with lyrics to songs. She has been combining lots of primary songs like:
I am a child of God
and he has sent me here
and thankful bless me go to sleep
quickly I obey...

Her pitch is pretty good, too.

The other day she was singing I am a child of God but made more minute changes:
We are a child of God
and he has sent me-
We are a child of God
and he has sent us here
has given me-
has given us an earthly home....

I don't know why, but that really tickled me.

Then, every time Emiline starts crying or fussing, Jane breaks out in Mary Had a Little Lamb. Maybe because her Lamby is comforting to her? I don't know, but it's pretty funny and 92% of the time, it works.

This afternoon at naptime, I told Emiline to sing to me and she started right up singing wide vowels that really sort of sounded like I am a child of God...

Emiline is growing so fast! She's nearly a true toddler now. She sways a lot, still falls down here and there, but has such good control of stopping and going and turning around. She's choosing to walk more and more, even though she's crazy fast crawling. She sometimes combines the two and will get her knees of the floor a few times as she racing from one spot to the next. I know how quickly she won't be a baby anymore! Strangely, it doesn't make me sad. I've really enjoyed her babyhood and I'm just so excited to see her grow up. Worried about her spiciness and what that will look like as two year old and a teenager, most definitely! But more excited!

Jane was pretending to be Rapunzel today and decided I was Flynn and whacked (very gently, mind you) me on the head. She was testing to see if that was OK. I gave her a look and said my face didn't like that. She corrected me, of course. "Mom, you don't like your pointy head to get hit!" She still calls foreheads "pointy head"s. And I had this moment where I realized that at some point, probably very soon, she will stop calling it my pointy head. And I will miss that. And I took a little mental snapshot and let my heart hold it. And I wanted to write it down here. I love it when I'm in a place to savor moments.

As exhausting and exasperating as they can be, my kids bring me such immeasurable joy. I know I had a life before, and I liked it. But in some ways, becoming a parent has been like being born into a whole new kind of life. It's like joy (and tiredness) are different here, have different levels and meanings.