Don't give up on me, baby...!

I don't know about you, but I'm certainly disppointed that I didn't manage to post an entry this whole past week. Silly me for thinking I could launch a blog during the busiest selling season of the year!

The kids have done so many funny and wonderful things this past week. I'm trying to hang on to the moments in my head so that I can share them with you.

I was just going to try and zip out a quick anecdote, but I keep dozing off mid-typing (imagine lines and lines of the letter 'dddd' or "jjjjjj." Ok, it just took me three times to type that b/c of the dozies.

Good night and happy almost Thanksgiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...

Chilly mornings, chilly toes, warm heart...

This morning, well before I was ready to be awake, somewhere inches from my nose comes a voice: "MOMMY! I'M CHILLY!" Good morning, Allison. I scoot into the center of bed with my back pressing against Sean's and lift the covers for my girl to slip under. "But, Mommy! I need to get my Blankie and Lambie!" Alright. I drift off to sleep for a moment. Then, "MOMMY! I'M STILL REALLY CHILLY!!" Okay. Okay. Hop up into the bed. Surprisingly, she slides right in without much bumbling. Usually, she prefers to launch herself up and over using our limbs as leverage to get between us and stretch and jiggle and flop about and beg for the Disney Channel, which, for the record, simply cannot be turned on fast enough.

But this morning is different.

Instead, Allison cuddles in next to me with her head resting on my pillow and her twinkling deep blues looking into my bleary dark greens. It's a disarming mirror to look into, her face. So much of Sean and yet I feel like I am peering at my wee little 1970s self. Right at that moment, she sighs and says, "I love you, Mommy." My cells all jump for joy and the love washes over me--it's a bit like dopamine.

We laid there together talking (talking!) for easily half an hour. She told me about the events of the night before--it's usually exciting stuff when I'm out working and it's Daddy/Daughter/Son Fun Night--it was no different this time. They ate popcorn, grapes, apples and Oreo cakes for dinner while they watched Ratatouille. In Sean's defense, he does usually feed the kiddos more traditional foods to sup on, but the movie watching influenced Friday's fare.

Fast forward to this evening...the Little Honeys are in bed and I'm sitting at my computer in the dim office, listening to the ceiling fan and the distant night traffic trickling in through the open window...and I'm a little sad. I was so, so sleepy this morning, so I remember the gist of my conversation with Allison and the fun partners-in-crime feeling she and I shared, but I already cannot come up with quoting any of Allison's precocious insight. She did confide in me that she has a thumb sucking ritual that involves the different fabric quadrants of her Blankie. I thought that was sweet and funny and then I remember thinking that I hope she doesn't already have OCD!

Nutshell: On a brisk autumn morning with the window open down the hall, snuggling with your girl and her chilly feet while listening to her tell you tales, short and tall, must be just a bit like nirvana.

And so I return...

We Hills haven't actually spent the last two years, five months doing nothing here in our desert as my lack of posts implies. In fact, these have been the busiest months of our lives and I wish I'd stayed on top of blogging our daily delights. I had to do some digging to remember,find and access this long-neglected site...and I'm relieved to be back at the encouragement of my friend M. Relieved because blogging has been nibbling at the rear corner of my mind since I first discovered it during the early days of my pregnancy with Adam and as I read every post of JR's, JV's, Ro's, C's, and more...and now I will actually be blogging, instead of just thinking about blogging. Thanks, M.