Every year after Christmas I go to Barnes and Noble and sift through their discounted children's christmas books. I usually buy one or two of them and put them away for the next year. At this point I have a pretty good stack of them, and I only pull them out at Christmas. When I begin to pull out christmas decorations that is the first thing the kids go looking for, and all through the holidays they sit and read these books.
Our bedtime routine with Makenzie goes as follows; give everyone a hug goodnight and tell them you love them; go potty, brush your teeth, and of course get that drink of water; find her beloved blankie, then she is tucked in bed and I always read her bedtime story. She is particularly excited now for bedtime stories because there is christmas books to read and they all involve that wonderful "Santa Dude".
The other night as we finished up, Twas the Night Before Christmas, she whispered in my ear, "I am so excited for Christmas, my tummy has flies in it". Let me interpret four year old language, she means, she has butterflies in her stomach.
Right there at that moment I wanted to take all that childhood excitement that was oozing out of her and bottle it. I wanted to forever remember her words, her emotions, her pure childhood happiness. Though it was just a brief moment of my day it was a brief moment that I wish I could replay and watch anytime I wanted.
The kids all are growing up so quick. The twins are changing into teenagers before my eye's and I see Makenzie growing just as fast...some days I just want it to slow down a little bit so I can forever remember all those brief little moments...............
Aww! That girl forever has me smiling! And I can just picture you reading her a story. What a tender image!
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