Snuggling

I miss my kids being little - luckily I get to spend time with my nieces and nephews who are all between 0 and 10.  Last night I helped my younger sister (who has the flu) and her three kids with the evening transition from daycare to bed.  These things helped me get my little kid fix:

-neatly organizing plates with miniature pancakes, small pieces of banana, and  bowls of yogurt in the middle
-pouring sippie cups of milk
-highchairs and bibs
-warm skinny bodies pulled up onto my lap, my arms wrapped around waists and under legs
-reading books out loud, making funny voices, and asking silly questions
-little fingers connecting the freckle dots on my hands while listening
-smiling faces, turned to me, lit up in shared enjoyment of the pictures and words
-sleepy eyes drifting downward, snapping open when the book is finished
-pleas for more "book, book!"

In the car on the way home my heart just ached for my own little ones and the hugs and snuggles and books we shared over the years. Opening the back door, I found two teenagers and their dad arguing the finer points of some obscure issue that was important to them.  We gathered around the kitchen table, plates in our hands, the nineteen year-old perched on the back of his chair, the sixteen year-old with her feet draped across my lap, enjoying the brief opportunity to "snuggle" together.