Remembering...

As I was vacuuming the house this morning, I was reminded of a day in the summer of 2006 when Paige was 3 or 4 months old. I always tried to do normal activities while she was sleeping or playing so she could be accustomed to the noise in the house. On the particular day I had Paige laying on her farm play mat in the dining room while I vacuumed the living room and hallway. When I finished vacuuming those two areas, I peeked around the corner to check on Paige...and found this.

It's little memories like this that I don't ever want to forget about Paige. While I vacuum now, she sits in the recliner and waits patiently for the noise to be done. Somehow I don't see her just falling asleep with all the vacuum commotion now!

There's something special about every stage of development that a child goes through. Somedays I long for her to be a newborn again so I could just sit and rock with her while I sing to her. But on the other hand, that means I wouldn't be sleeping through the night! There are other days that I wouldn't trade her 2-year-old self for anything in the world. Last night might have been one of those moments. She's really into singing songs lately with Stephen and I. I sing "Twinkle, twinkle little star" to her, as well as "You are my Sunshine", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Little Ducky Duddle", and the "ABC song". Right before Stephen laid her down for bed last night, she crawled up on my stomach and laid her head on my chest and said "Sing Sunshine, Mommy!". It absolutely melted my heart. Stephen thinks she was just playing me to get to stay up longer, and she may have been, but I don't care! My mom tells me that I would do something very similar to her when she would sing to me...when she would stop I'd look up at her and say "Sing, Mommy, Sing!" and she would. And I want to do the same for my daughter...everytime, even if she is just wanting to stay out of bed longer.