A Pillow, Kisses, & Chocolate Chips

Ada's the best. Last night, she knew I was exhausted from a long day at work and my body just wasn't playing nicely with the BB in my belly. As I sat on the couch, curled up with a good book, trying to relax the day away, Rick attended to my every need and managed to get Ada fed, entertained, cleaned, and medicated. Poor guy had to get me water and tea and pillows and a blanket and surely a few more things I can't even remember. While he was in the kitchen, busily cleaning out the dishwasher, Ada slipped out from under his watch long enough to come to the living room and smoother me with kisses. Normally she'll give out kisses when she is prompted. This time she was attacking me with wet, sloppy, toddler cootie kisses. I think she gave me 20 kisses without me even asking for one. She must have sensed that I needed some love. It was so sweet.

Then, about fifteen minutes later, Rick was busy doing laundry in the bedroom or some other chore at the back of the house when she returned to my side with a pillow from her bed. She'd seen Rick bring me pillows to prop up my back and legs and wanted to make sure I had enough of them to be comfortable. Can you say adorable?

And then, this is the best part, she magically appeared by my side -- well after her bedtime at this point --with a small Ziploc container of trail mix that included peanuts, raisins, and a ton of chocolate chips (which I am currently eating by the handful from a 72 oz re-sealable bag I have conveniently stored on a shelf in the refrigerator. This is one craving I am not going to complain about). I open the container for her and we share the goodies. She's eating the mix pretty fast and I'm trying to figure out if she is favoring the chocolate chips or the raisins or eating all three equally. Part of me is worried that she is just picking out the chocolate chips since that's just not acceptable (I only have 65 oz left in the fridge for Pete's sake kid, lay off momma's stash!). I'm about to tell her to stop hogging all of the chocolate when she turns to me and starts feeding me the chocolate chips. One, two, three chocolate chips go down the hatch and I'm laughing so hard at this point that I have to call Rick over to explain that she is a total enabler, mind reader, and way too cute for words. All my aches and pains instantly faded away at that moment. Maybe it was her gentle way with me, or the chocolate, or the laughter, or the knock out combination of it all, but I sure felt better.

Moral of the story: Sometimes kids do the cutest things. Store those memories in a special place and revisit them often.