Sweet Moments

With three little girls, life is busy. Megan and I are constantly on the move, always helping at least one of them with one thing or another. In the whirlwind that is our lives these days, it can be tough to remember to cherish the sweet moments that spring up when you least expect them. This evening presented me with two specials times with Abby and Emma.

Tonight Meg got a much deserved evening away with some friends for a movie night. She took the Rubes just in case she got hungry. That meant it was just Abbs, Emms and I hanging out. We dug up our stack of Christmas books and read almost every one. It was fun to see which ones they fondly remembered from last year, and which ones will quickly become favorites this year. After story time, they got in their PJs and hopped in bed. Prayer time, song time, then sleepy time, at least that's the standard script. The girls clearly weren't tired so I made them a deal; they could each pick a book to look at as long as they were quiet. I had work to do, and knew they wouldn't fall asleep quickly. After about ten trips into their room, and multiple warnings, slow-to-get-it-daddy finally realized this wasn't working. I took books from the girls and said it was time to sleep. Well the flood gates opened and it quickly became flip-out time.

I realized they were both exhausted so I told them I'd lay down with each of them until they fell asleep. As Emma is our night owl, I laid down with Abby and just watched her as she began to fall asleep. I could just tell that laying by her put her at ease and she was out within minutes. As I watched her fall asleep, her short little life flashed through my mind. It was just yesterday that she was our new baby. Here she is now, a big four-year-old. She's picking things up so quickly that it just blows us away. As I continued watching her, it struck me that this must be how God watches our every move. He loves us so unconditionally, so completely and so sincerely. He must do a lot of smiling in all the sweet moments He sees in His children each day, just as I could not supress the big smile on my face as I watched her.

With Abby asleep, I moved over to Emma's bed. She was beginning to wind down, but was still feeling a little squirrely. I laid next to her, and as we have many times before, we close our eyes, about two inches apart from each other and we peek at one another. We keep peeking until we catch the others glance and then we giggle. She'll play the mommy and tell me to close my eyes and go to sleep. I'll pretend to do so until I peek again. We do this for a bit until it's time for kisses. Emma has just recently discovered butterfly kisses, and she loves them, which I totally dig. After many butterfly kisses on each cheek, back and forth, it was time to say good night. I kissed her nose one last time and left her with a smile on her face that will have me smiling until tomorrow morning. On the week of Thanksgiving it is sweet moments like these that I'm so thankful for.