Bedtime talk

Brad put C to bed tonight while I went to the grocery store, but she was still wide awake when I got home and asked so sweetly if I would stay with her awhile when I went in to say good night that I took her up on it.  She'd been a bit of a bear off and on all day so this quiet, loving together time was a particular treat for my soul.   I need to take her soft "I want to be with you all the time" whilst her little hands caress my face and stroke my hair and store these sacred moments away for those many days a decade or less from now when she wants nothing to do with me.

I asked if she wanted to read a story with me.  "Oh, YEAH!!  I LOVE when you read me stories!  I love when you do bedtime with me Mommy, that makes me so happy.   You do bedtime and I won't cry.  You like to make me not cry, don't you Mommy."

So she chooses the Itsy Bitsy Gift of Life, A Donor Egg Story.  Which we haven't read in weeks.
Afterwards she sits up, rubs her tummy and says, "I want to grow a baby in MY tummy!"

"Yeah…when you're grown up you can do that."

Still rubbing her tummy, sticking it out as far as she can, she says in her impossibly darling voice "I have everything I need to make a baby.  And it will grow and grow, and I will name her Anna!"

Breathe.