Sunday, February 17, 2008

The power of the human touch

So, my daughter sleeps with me in my bed. I know there are a lot of mixed opinions on this topic, but for me it works. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she won't be snuggling up to me like that when she's 10, so for now, I soak it up. As a result, I am there for her sweet waking moments, which, more often than not, are the reasons that I wake up with a smile on my face. Take this morning for instance.... it's a gloomy rainy day. I have a very busy day planned and have lots to do to prepare (which is sooo why I'm procrastinating here...). I'm lying in bed, waiting for the scent of coffee to come drifting into the bedroom so that I can persuade myself that getting up is, in fact, the right and necessary thing to do. In her sleep, Carlie throws her arm over me and mumbles something. "What'd you say, baby?" She says, "You can rub my arm right here." Well, the girl's not even awake, how can I say no to that? So, I rub her arm, just the way she likes it. All of a sudden she pulls her arm away and flips over to face the opposite direction. In that sweet way that she has (sometimes!!:)), she says, "Thanks, Mommy. That was just enough to make me happy." And she goes back to sleep. She's ONLY 3. That tugged at my mommy heart more than you can probably understand. It is those moments that make me happy and make me ache all at the same time. I think it's why I'm so driven to capture them the only way I know how... by either writing them down (did you know my secret dream is to be a writer?) or by taking a photograph. If I didn't do one or the other, that moment would have slipped away into the tucked-away-hope-I-remember-it-when-I-am-old part of my mind (which, quite frankly, is pretty full already). So, instead of getting up early the way I probably should've, I snuggled her close and breathed her in... just for a little longer.

1 comment:

Mary Morrow said...

this made me get all teary eyed!
i think most mommies can relate to this, whether their babies sleep with them or not - it's about taking in the special moments that we DO get with them that are u.n.i.n.t.e.r.r.u.p.t.e.d.
thanks for sharing your heart :).