Wake Up, Mommy!

I'm exhausted. But it's worth it!

I often have trouble sleeping at night with Rafe gone, and last night was no exception. I had finally started to drift off around 2 am, when I heard Amelia crying in her room. I went to go check on her, and she was completely awake. And very happy to see me. The conversation went something like this:

Mia: "MOMMMMMMEEEEEE!!" with a happy voice and a big smile
Me: Mia, are you ok? What's wrong?
Mia: "tories, mama." (She wants me to read her stories)
Me: It's in the middle of the night, we can't read stories. You need to go to sleep"
Mia: (in her perkiest, happiest voice) "Mommy bed?" (she wants to sleep in my bed)
Me: Ok (Yeah, I'm a real hold out. It didn't take much. I love to snuggle with her)

So I bring her to my bed and we get snuggled in, and she is laying there yapping away. She tells me to "koze er ice" (close your eyes) and then leans in reaaaaaaaaaaaaaly close and kisses my nose, then starts giggling, which makes me laugh. Pretty soon she's delighted with this turn of events and starts patting her little fingers on my face, hugging me and kissing me and laughing hysterically. Before long, we're both laughing and playing and by the time we're finally settled down again in the covers (to which she says, "cozy, mama!") it's almost 3 am.

For a brief moment, I considered stopping the play and bringing her back to her own room. But I loved that time out of space feeling, where all worries and chores and expectations were suspended. It was night time, it was funny, and there was nowhere we had to be and nothing we had to do. It was pure sweetness to feel her warm little body next to mine, snuggled into me and breathing softly as she went to sleep.

Best of all, I was woken up this morning to an extremely cheerful, hyperactively happy child giving me kisses and hugs and saying, "Wake up, Mommy!" The only thing that would top that would be Rafe being here with us.... so he could get up with her and let me sleep in!! :)