The little things

Photos from when Hannah was 5-16 days old.

These days time has been so precious. I find myself almost constantly thinking that I want to record or document how soft Hannah's head is when she nestles her chubby cheek under my chin or the hilarious things that LE says and does. I don't want to forget all of the things that makes this time with them special.

There are so many moments that we can't capture on camera, like the millionth time before bed that John and I have taken turns singing duets with an eager, tone deaf LE in her specific order of "Ba Ba Black Sheep," "Twinkle Twinkle," "ABCD," "Skinamarinky Dinky Dink." If you ask LE, it goes, "Skaginkgink, skaginkgink doo... Eyes love you!" The last song she requests each night is "Baby's Boat" from John and "Hush Baby" from me.

We get kisses in her precise order, ranging from left cheek, right cheek, nose, then mouth. Sometimes we get a "baby kiss" on our nose, and we have to give a "teeny tiny" kiss on her nose. Sometimes we get our ears grabbed so she can move our head in the exact place that she wants it to be able to plant one.

All of her friends (Doggy, Soft Bwanket, Little Piwwow, Teddy Bear, Little Teddy, and whomever else happens to be nearby) get their assigned spots lined up in her bed. Sometimes her water sippies get a special spot on the bed; other times they sleep on her stool. Always they are exactly where she wants them, and there's no way for us to predict what she'll want that night.

I love to hear our little 2 1/2 year old say things that sound grown up, like her response to if she's ready for something: "Not quite yet" or "In a couple of minutes." Of course, I love when she says unprompted, "please," "thank you," "bless you," and her latest addition of "'cuse me." She picks up new phrases so quickly, like "That's what Daddy says." But then, she shows us how she is just a two year old by the way she confuses meals of the day and answers some questions with made up words, "a deedee and a go-bah."

I wish there was a way that I could explain, share, video, photograph all of the things that make this time special, but there's not. I'm thankful for our phones that capture some of the times that we didn't have our big camera around.