A bit later, said house relatively clean, I decide I shall lay down in my bed with the older of aforementioned rat faces, and read. He's not fallen asleep yet, so he is playing with his hands and making "boy noises". He finally starts to get still; they way he does right before he falls asleep. He lays his head down on my arm and looks up at me, with his huge, brown eyes gramed by the longest of lashes and says, in a sleepy voice, "I love you mama". As I watch him falling asleep, his blinks becoming longer and longer, I am almost suffocated by the depth of how much I love this kid. I even wonder how in the world I could love anyone else as much as I love this destroyer of stuff. I feel guilty thinking this, as I remember my other little rat face upstairs sleeping in her crib.
The Destroyer has been asleep for 15 minutes or so. I can feel my own blinks getting longer and longer as I'm lazily stretched out in the tangle of sheet on comforter that is my bed. I hear a noise in the living room, and the mini-me is on the floor playing with blocks. As soon as she sees me, her little face lights up - "mama, tickle me!" So I scoop her up and trudge up the stairs, her grubby, pudgy little arms around my neck as she lays her head on my shoulder. Her hair is curly and stands up in all directions. She is a fitting heiress of the "mother of the wind" monikor bestowed upon me when I was her age. I crawl into her crib with her. She grabs my hand and commands again "tickle me mama!" Of course, I lovingly and bemusedly oblige. As she is almost asleep, she manages to croak "I love you mama!" and I'm once again caught up in the sweet suffocation of affection. Once again thinking "how is it possible to love any other person in the world as much as I love this round little being lying in my arms!?"
Sigh. It's been a perfect day!
